the new God as we see might have stood upon the old terms even to the utter ruin of fallen mankind But oh immense Love He would not he would do so with Angels but he would not with Men an abatement was made to them not afforded to those nobler Creatures once Inmates of Heaven In the case of Sadow God came down lower and lower from fifty righteous persons to forty five and so at last to ten I will not do it for tens sake Gen. 18.32 But in the case of fallen man when all had sinned when there was none righteous no not one God comes down from the first terms made with Man to such lower ones as might comply with his frailty Under the Law there were Sacrifices called by the Jewish Doctors Gnoleh najored ascending and descending The rich man offered a Lamb the poor whose hand could not reach so far offered two Turtle-Doves While Man was rich in Holy Powers and Excellencles God called for pure perfect sinless Obedience but after the Fall he being poor in Spirituals altogether unable to pay such a sum God stoops and accommodates himself to Humane weakness a faithful conatus a sincere though imperfect Obedience will serve the turn in order to Mans happiness This is the first step which infinite Mercy takes in raising up Man out of the ruins of the Fall The old terms were not stood upon But now that new terms might be made and established that the second Covenant might have an happier issue than the first Mercy goes on to give the Son of God for us God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life John 3.16 This so is unutterable this Love unmeasurable diffusing it self not to Jews only but to a World and that overwhelmed in sin giving and that freely without any Merit of ours a Son and an only begotten Son that we through faith in him might have life eternal and there enjoy him who is Love it self for ever Here is a Mine of Love too deep and rich for any Creature to fathom or count the value of it But before I open it I shall first remove the ill use which the Socinians make of this Love to overturn Christs Satisfaction If God say they so loved us as to give his Son for us then he was not angry with us Oportuisse Deum jam placatissimum esse Soc. de Serv. l. 1. c. 7. Non vos pudet iram divinam eamque immensam ibi fingere ubi nil nisi immensus amor elucet Cui iraseâ—batur Deus cum unigenitum filium in mortem dabat Sclicting contr Meisn and if not angry then there was no need at all of a Satisfaction to be made for us Unto which I answer Anger and Love are not inconsistencies in Scripture both are attributed unto God He gave his Son for us was not that Love immense Love He wounded and bruised him for our iniquities he made him to be sin and a curse for us Was not there Wrath great Wrath We have both together in one Text Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins 1 John 4.10 The high Emphasis of his Love was in giving his Son to be a Propitiation for us unless there had been just anger a Propitiation would have been needless unless there had been immense Love his Son should not have been made one for us We have a plain instance in Job's friends Gods Wrath was kindled against them and yet in love he directs them to atone him by a Sacrifice Job 42.7 8. God could not but be angry at the Sin of the World and yet in love he gave his Son to be an expiatory Sacrifice But for a more full answer I shall lay down several things 1. God may be considered either as a Rector or as a Benefactor As a Rector he acts out of a just anger in vindicating his broken Law by Penal Sufferings As a Benefactor he acts out of admirable love in giving his Son to be a Propitiation for us When he vindicates his Law by Punishments Is it not Anger when he gives his Son for us Is it not Love If he be a Rector Can he not be a Benefactor too Then he could not give his Son without laying down of his Government If he be a Benefactor Can he not be a Rector too Then he could not govern without laying down his Love but if as the truth is he may be both then Anger and Love may consist together 2. Gods displeasure may be taken either as it terminates on the sin or as it terminates on the sinner as it terminates on the sin it is altogether unremovable God himself with reverence be it spoken can no more remove it than he can lay down his Sanctity which in the very notion of it includes an abhorrency of sin As it terminates on the sinner so it may be removed This appears in that God pardons sin and that as the Scripture-phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports in such a way that the Penal Sufferings are translated from the sinner himself to his Sponsor The Divine displeasure did pass off from us or else we could not have been pardoned or saved and it did light upon Christ or else that Holy One could not have been made a Curse which no meer Sufferings if abstracted from Divine Wrath can amount unto We see here there is displeasure at the sin and yet infinite love towards the sinner in translating the punishment upon another 3. Gods Love is double a Love of Complacence which delights in the Creature and a Love of Benevolence which designs good to it The first takes pleasure in the Saints who bear his holy Image The second diffuses it self to sinners who in themselves are worthy of Wrath. Hence the Apostle tells us God commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Rom. 5.8 Sinners are objects of displeasure and yet Love breaks out towards them in that great instance the Death of Christ If ever there were anger in God 't was at the Sin of a World if ever there were Love in him 't was in the Gift of his Son These two may very well stand together 4. Man may be considered either as a Sinner or as a Creature A man who hath a rebellious Son may be angry with him as rebellious and yet compassionate him as a Son In like manner God may be angry with us as Sinners and yet love us as Creatures Having removed the Socinian-Cavil I shall now proceed to speak of Gods Love in giving his Son for us Here I shall distinctly consider the giver The Gift The manner how it was given The persons for whom The evil removed and good procured by it and the excellent Evangelical terms built upon it Each one of these will illustrate this Love
original and drink good at the Fountain head Nothing is more obvious than this that an holy Life is the true way thither who can rationally think that he can carry the blots and turpitudes of an impure Life into such a place or that any thing less than sincere Obedience can make him meet to enjoy God and holy Angels there nothing can be more vain than such an imagination as sure as Heaven is Heaven an holy Life must be the way thither Thus we see what a mighty influence Faith hath into Holiness hence Ignatius saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Faith is the beginning of Life Epist ad Ephes without Faith a Man cannot live an holy Life And St. Austin calls Faith Omnium Bonorum Fundamentum De Fide ad Petr. Proli The Foundation of all good things So good a thing as an holy Life cannot stand without it A Fide saith another venitur ad bona opera Unless we begin at Faith we shall never come to an holy Life To conclude this with that of the Apostle Without Faith it is impossible to please God Hebr. 11.6 Therefore without Faith it is impossible to lead an holy Life which is very acceptable to him The next thing is An holy Life issues out of Divine Love without this neither Heart nor Life can be right not the Heart the Will without Divine Love in it is tota cupiditas all concupiscence pouring out it self to every vanity that passes by not the Life whatever good is done without that Love is done servilitèr non liberalitèr whate ever is in the hand it is not done out of choice in animo non facit his Will concurres not as it ought in God's account it is as if it were not done at all Love is the root of an holy Life the summary of the Law though the Precepts of the Law are many in diversitate operis in the diversity of the Work yet they are but one in radice Charitatis in the root of Charity True Love is Donum amantis in amatum the Soul being drawn and called out of it self by the object loved yields and surrenders up it self thereunto if thus we love God there must needs be an holy Life the Heart when given up and consecrated unto him cannot chuse but carry the Life with it It would be a prodigy in Nature if the Heart should go one way and the Life another True Love sets a great price upon its object and if the object be as God is supreme it rates it above all things if we set the highest estimate upon God's Will and Glory nothing can divert us from an holy Life which complies with his Will and promotes his Glory it is irrational to neglect that which we value above all other things True Love seeks more and more Union with God to be one Spirit with him to have idem velle idem nolle to love as he loves that is Holiness to hate as he hates that is Sin It aspires after a further transformation into the Divine Image and likeness it never thinks the Soul like enough or near enough to him where it is thus there an holy Life cannot be wanting the Heart being assimilated to God the Life must needs answer the Heart and shine with the rays of the Divine Image which is there True Love desires to have a complacential rest and delight in God it flies to him like Noah's Dove to the Ark there to repose it self what weight is in a Body that Love is in the Soul Amor meus Pondus meum Aust weight makes the Body move towards its center Love makes the Soul tend by an holy Life to center in God the Supreme goodness leaving all other things as the Woman of Samaria did her Pitcher It hastens in a way of Obedience to enjoy him Thus we see how an holy Life issues out of a Regenerate Heart and particularly out of Faith and Love the Doctrine of it is not to be slubbered over as if it did meerly consist in external Actions or Moralities But we must search and see Whether there be a new Creature a Work of Regeneration at the bottom of it Job being by his Friends charged as an hypocrite tells them That the root of the matter was found in him Job 19.28 He was not a Man of leaves and outward appearances only but the root of true Piety was in him without this all good actions how specious soever are but like the Apples of Sodom which though fair to the Eye upon a touch fall into ashes and smoak Thirdly An holy Life proceeds out of a pure Intention Bonum opus Intentio facit Intentionem Fides dirigit saith St. Austin * In Psal 31. The Intention makes the Work good and Faith directs the Intention This is the single Eye mentioned by our Saviour If thine Eye be single thy whole Body shall be full of light If thine Eye be evil thy whole Body shall be full of darkness Matth. 6.22 23. A pure Intention casts a Spiritual Light and Lustre upon the Body of our good Works but that being wanting the whole Body of our Works is dead and dark like a carcass void of all Beauty and Excellency Let thine Eyes look right on saith the Wiseman Prov. 4.25 That is Have a pure Intention to the Will and Glory of God This is one thing in the Church which ravishes the Heart of Christ Thou hast ravished my Heart with one of thine Eyes with one chain of thy Neck Cant. 4.9 The first thing which excordiated Christ and took away his Heart was the One the single Eye and then the Chain of Obedience ravished him also without a pure intention a Man in his fairest Actions squints and looks awry by a tacit blasphemy he makes as if there were something more excellent than the Will and Glory of God for him to look unto and when Man squints God looks off and will have none of his Obedience Israel is an empty Vine he bringeth forth fruit to himself Hos 10.1 Fruit and yet empty is a seeming contradiction but the words reconcile themselves He bringeth forth to himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he weighs out his Fruit to himself he proportions his Religion to himself all being for himself God accepts it not but esteems it as nothing at all such Fruit and meer emptiness are much one before God He tells them Levit. 26.27 That they did walk with him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in accidente at all adventures when they chanced to light upon him by the by and besides their intention quasi aliud agentes as if the Service of God were a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a business only by the by but would God accept them or take it well at their hands No he will walk with them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too by chance at all adventures his Blessings shall come upon them as it were per accidens his Mind is not towards them as it
like manner is it with his daily Infirmities these are not indulged but they lie as an heavy burden upon him he wishes for he breaths after Perfection Oh! that there were no remaining Sin no moats of Infirmity But alas it will not be here Aust de Temp. Serm. 45. Concupiscere nolo concupisco saith the Father Innate corruption will be stirring and bubling up in us all that can be done on Earth is to war and fight against it the Triumph the Crown of sinless Perfection can be found no where but in Heaven But to clear this Particular I shall set down two things The one is this A Man who indulges or allows sin in himself cannot while he doth so lead an holy Life he hath no Principles for it no Principle of Repentance he cannot mourn over sin while he joys in it he cannot hate sin while he loves it he cannot forsake sin while he follows after it No Principle of Faith he cannot trust in God's Mercy when he rebels and is in Arms against him he cannot receive the Lord Christ when he hath another Master to rule over him he cannot close in with the precious Promises of the Gospel when he embraces the lying Promises of Sin No Principle of Holy Love he cannot truly love God with an Idol in his Heart he cannot love him and close in with sin his great Enemy he cannot love him and habitually willingly violate his Commands Such an one can have no pure Intention towards God's Will or Glory not towards God's Will he obeys with a salvo or exception he picks and chuses among the Divine Commands he complies only with those Commands which cross not his darling Lust The Jewish Rabbins say He that saith I receive the whole Law except one word only despises the Command of God The same Divine Authority is upon all the Commands and that Obedience which is with the exception of one Command which crosses the indulged Lust is as none at all Nor yet towards God's Glory How can he glorify God who by willful sinning dishonours him or how can he aim at that Glory who aims at the satisfaction of his own Lust or which way can one promote two such contrary ends as that Glory and his own Satisfaction Heaven and Hell Light and Darkness Holiness and Impurity may as soon be reconciled as two such contrary ends can meet together Every indulged Lust is one Idol or other either it is Baal Pride and Lorliness or Ashtaroth Wealth and Riches or Venus carnal and sensual pleasure or Mauzzim Force and earthly Power unless the Idol be put away we cannot serve God in in an holy Life The other thing is this It is of high concern to an holy Life to mortify Sin An holy Man is one in Covenant with God therefore he must maintain war against Sin the Enemy of God Sin is an opposite to God a rebellion against his Sovereignty a contradiction to his Holiness an abuse to his Grace a provocation to his Justice a disparagement to his Glory and how can an holy Man a Friend of God do less than set himself against it that he may kill and utterly destroy it Ye that love the Lord hate evil saith the Psalmist Psal 97.10 The Exhortation is pregnant with excellent Reason If you do indeed love God who is Purity Power Wisdom Excellency it self ye can do no less than hate Sin which is Pollution Weakness Folly and Vileness and if you do hate it you will seek the utter ruine and extirpation of it an holy Man is one in union with Christ and upon that account he must mortify Sin in Christ crucified he hath a pattern of Mortification what was done to his pure Flesh in a way of Expiation must be done to our corrupt Flesh in a way of Mortification The Nails which fastned him to the Cross tell us that our corruption must have such a restraint upon it that it may like one on a Cross be disabled to go forth into those acts of sin which it is propense unto the piercing and letting out his Heart-blood shews us that the Old Man must not only be restrained but pierced that the vital Blood the internal love of sin may be let out of the Heart he was active in his Passion he freely laid down his Life yet violence was done to him in like manner we must freely sacrifice our Lusts we must willingly die to sin yet sin must not die a Natural Death but a violent one it must be stabb'd at the heart and die of its wounds And because it will not die all at once it must by little and little languish away till it give up the Ghost there must be Mortification upon Mortification because sin is long a dying But further we have from Christ not an Examplar of mortification only but a Spirit and Divine Power for the Work while by Faith we converse about the wounds of Christ We have that Spirit from him which mortifies the deeds of the Body Rom. 8.13 That mind of Christ which makes us suffer in the Flesh ceasing from sin That we may no longer live to the Lusts of Men but to the Will of God 1 Pet. 4.1 2. If then the holy Man will live like himself and as becomes a Member of Christ he must by that Vertue and Spirit which he hath from him crucify his Lusts and Corruptions Thus the Apostle They that are Christ's have crucified the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts Gal. 5.24 They ought to crucify them they do crucify them so far that sin can reign no longer they go on crucifying every day more and more that the body of sin may be destroyed Moreover An holy Man hath such a Divine Faith as blasts all the World in comparison of Heavenly things in the Eyes of Faith Earthly Riches are not the true ones those Treasures which glitter so much to Sense are but poor moth-eaten things the World's substance is but a shadow an apparition a thing that is not too low for an immortal Soul to aim at too mean to enrich the inward Man the sensual pleasures which ravish Flesh and Blood are but the vain titillations of the outward Man Momentary things such as perish in the using and die in the embraces leaving nothing behind them but a sting and worm in the Conscience of the poor voluptuary Mundane Glories which take carnal Men so much appear to be but a blast a little popular Air to a Man up among the Stars the whole Earth would be but a small thing and to a Man who by Faith converses in Heaven Earthly Crowns and Scepters are no better Now when Sin which uses to wrap up it self in one piece of the World or other is blasted in its Covers and Dresses of apparent Good when those Pomps and Fancies of the World which usually paint and cover Sin to render it eligible unto Men are discovered by Faith to be but vanities and empty Nothings Sin
conjunction p. 329 330. The conjunctions between Christ and us p. 331 to 334. How Christs Righteousness is imputed to us p. 335 to 337. That it is not only the Meritorious but Material cause of our Justification 338. This is proved from that phrase The Righteousness of God ib. 339 340. From the nature of Justification p. 341 to 343. From the parallel of the two Adams 344 to 351. From other phrases in Scripture 351 to 357. From a pardon as not being the same with Justification 357 to 364. From Christs suffering in our stead 364 365. The Objections against imputed Righteousness answered 365 to 374. What justifies us as to the Gospel-terms 374 c. The necessity and connexion of a twofold Righteousness 375 to 381. How we are justified by Faith 381 382. How Good works are necessary 382 to 387. A short conclusion 387 388 c. CHAP. XII Touching an Holy Life 390 to 392. It is not from principles of Nature 393 394. It is the fruit of a renewed regenerated heart 395 to 401. It issues out of faith and love 401 to 407. It proceeds out of a pure intention towards the will and glory of God 407 to 414. It is humble and dependent upon the influences of Grace 414 to 421. It requires a sincere mortification of sin without any salvo or exception 421 to 427. It stands in an exercise of all Graces 427 428. It makes a man holy in ordinances alms prosperity adversity contracts calling 428 to 441. There is such an exercise of graces as causeth them to grow 441 to 447. The conclusion of the Chapter 447 to 449. CHAP. I. Chap 1 A short View of Gods All-sufficiency and condescension in revealing himself The various ways of Manifestation In the making of the World and Man After the fall in the moral Law and in types and shadows Lastly and above all in and by Jesus Christ GOD All-sufficient must needs be his own happiness he hath his Being from himself and his happiness is no other than his being radiant with all Excellencies and by intellectual and amatorious reflexions turning back into the fruition of it self His Understanding hath prospect enough in his own infinite Perfections his Will hath rest enough in his own infinite Goodness he needed not the pleasure of a World who hath an eternal Son in his bosom to joy in nor the breath of Angels or men who hath an eternal Spirit of his own he is the Great All comprizing all within himself nay unless he were so he could not be God Had he let out no beams of his glory or made no intelligent creatures to gather up and return them back to himself his happiness would have suffered no eclipse or diminution at all his Power would have been the same if it had folded up all the possible Worlds within its own arms and poured forth never an one into being to be a monument of it self His Wisdom the same if it had kept in all the orders and infinite harmonies lying in its bosom and set forth no such series and curious contexture of things as now are before our eyes His Goodness might have kept an eternal Sabbath in it self and never have come forth in those drops and models of Being which make up the Creation His Eternity stood not in need of any such thing as time or a succession of instants to measure its duration nor his Immensity of any such Temple as Heaven and Earth to dwell in and fill with his presence His Holiness wanted not such pictures of it self as are in Laws or Saints nor his Grace such a channel to run in as Covenants or Promises His Majesty would have made no abatement if it had had no train or host of creatures to wait upon it or no rational ones among them such as Angels and men to sound forth its praises in the upper or lower World Creature-praises though in the highest tune of Angels are but as silence to him as that Text may be read Psalm 65.1 Were he to be served according to his Greatness all the men in the World would not be enough to make a Priest nor all the other creatures enough to make a Sacrifice fit for him Is it any pleasure to him that thou art righteous saith Eliphaz Job 22.3 No doubt he takes pleasure in our righteousness but the complacence is without indigence and while he likes it he wants it not That such an infinite All-sufficient One should manifest himself must needs be an act of admirable supereffluent Goodness such as indeed could not be done without stooping down below his own Infinity that he might gratifie our weakness Those two Hebrew words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which imports flesh or weakness and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is to annunciate and declare good tidings are of a neer affinity In the mysterie of the Incarnation God came down into our flesh and in every other manifestation of himself he comes down as it were into the weakness of creatures or notions that we who cannot hear or understand the eternal Word in it self or enter the Light inaccessible might see him in reflexes and finite glasses such as we are able to bear Every manifestation imports condescension The World as fair and goodly a structure as it is is but instar puncti aut nihili like a little drop or small dust to him Creature-reason though a divine particle and more glorious than the Sun it self is but a little spark for the Infinite Light to shew himself in No words no not those in the purest Laws and richest Promises are able to reach him who as an Ancient hath it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Essence Goodness Wisdom all in hyperbole in a transcendent excess above words or notions His Name is above every name nevertheless he humbles himself to appear to our minds in a Scripture-image nay to our very senses in the body of Nature that we might clasp the arms of Faith and Love about the holy beams and in their light and warmth ascend up to their great Original the Father of Lights and Mercies God hath manifested himself many ways He set up the material World that he though an invisible Spirit might render himself visible therein all the hosts of Creatures wear his colours Sensible things say the Platonists are but the types and resemblances of spiritual which are the primitive and archetypal Beings Every thing here below say the Jewish Cabalists hath some root above and all Worlds have the print and seal of God upon them Eternity shadows forth it self in time infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness pourtray out themselves upon finite things in such legible characters that as soon as we open our eyes upon them we see innumerable creatures pointing to the Creator and teaching that Wisdom which Archytas the Philosopher placed in the reduction of all things to one great Original Almighty Power hath printed it self upon the World nay upon every little particle of it
in giving his Son for us The Giver is God himself no other could do it And here two things offer themselves to us The one is the earliness of his Love It was no Novel temporary thing but ancient nay eternal upon the Prescience of the Fall he eternally designed that his Son should assume our Nature and in it dye as an expiatory Sacrifice for us Christ was the Lamb foreordained before the foundation of the world 1 Pet. 1.20 He was set down for a Redeemer in the eternal Volumes before the world was up and slain above in Decree long before he was slain below in Time A Plaister was provided before the wound a Saviour before the Fall of Man When David would set forth Gods Mercy in the highest strain He doth it thus His mercy is from everlasting to everlasting Psal 103.17 Such is his Love in Christ reaching as I may say from one end of eternity to another Each one of us may cry out as that Ancient did Sero te amavi Domine Lord 't was late e're I loved thee Our love is but of yesterday a temporary thing but his was as early as eternity it self The other is the freeness of it Love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Rhet. l. 2. c. 4. as the Philosopher speaks wills good to another for his sake not for our own In that wonderful Gift of Christ the Love was Gods the profit ours Mercy in man hath a kind of respect to the Donor frail Humanity and the wheel of a mutable world tell him That himself the now giver may peradventure come to be a receiver Hence the Apostle would have us remember them in adversity as being in the body Heb. 13.3 and restore the lapsed considering thy self Gal. 6.1 It may be our own case There is in such acts of Mercy a kind of respect to our future self which possibly may become an object for Mercy But Mercy in God which is the suavity of his Essence issues out in a pure gratuitous way no such respect can fall upon him who is immutable and blessed for ever In the freeness of his Love there are two things considerable On Gods part there was no want on Mans no attractive On Gods part there was no want of us or our Services were there want with him he could not be God Could we supply him we should be greater than himself in furnishing him with that which he could not do for himself He is All-sufficient and what want can be in him Infinite and what can be added to him An Ocean though vast yet because finite may receive an addition from a little drop But what can be added to infinity which in its unmeasurable excellency comprizes all things within it self All nations to him are but as the drop of the bucket and as the small dust of the ballance Isa 40.15 Their Righteousness cannot add one beam to his essential Glory neither can their iniquity in the least eclipse it However it be with the Creature he is still himself His own happiness a sphere of all Perfections a Theatre of Glory to himself Hence it appears that Gods Love in giving his Son for us was not a Love of indigence but of fulness and redundance flowing out in a pure gratuitous manner towards us that the honour might be his and the profit ours He gives like himself out of super-effluent goodness as becomes one who is a Donor only but no Receiver On Mans part there was no attractive to move God to give his Son for us Mans Love is usually drawn out by some excellency or other in the object but what can draw out Gods Could the Origine of all goodness be attracted by any thing in the Creature Yet is it possible that any thing should be found in a fallen Creature to attract it Mans misery was indeed the occasion but what was the attractive Was our Love first and a charm to his Oh! no to say that a Creature is first in Love is to blaspheme the Supreme Goodness which sets up Love in it The Apostle is express Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins 1 John 4.10 Between men Love is ordinarily reciprocal he that loves is beloved again but here the Love was on one side only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Rhet. l. 2. c. 4. God loved his very Enemies so far as to give his Son for them to raise up their Love to its great Original Among men an harmony of spirits a sameness of tempers is a motive to Love But what was there could there be any such thing in fallen man as such How then was he fallen What need was there of a Saviour That holy Harmony was Mans Primitive rectitude and whilest it lasted there was no need of any restorer Alas fallen man was a very Chaos of corruption his very rational Powers were depraved there was flesh in his spirit enmity in his mind against him who lighted up a pure Reason in him at the first There was bondage in his Will it could not nay such was its horrible perversness it would not elevate it self to the fountain of its liberty Among men goodness is an allective to Love but what goodness was there in a fallen degenerate Creature full-fraught with sin and opposite to its Maker The very reliques of the Divine Image which sin could not utterly expel out of the humane Nature were yet so captivated and imprisoned there that gross Idolatry filled the world in spight of all the notions of a Deity implanted in the hearts of men We see cleerly there was no attractive on our part Why then did God give his Son for us The only reason was from himself it was meer Grace self-moving Mercy a pure emanation of Love towards us unworthy Creatures who might have been made the objects of his Wrath and that for ever The next thing considerable is the Gift it self and that was the Son of God very God a greater a dearer person could not be given if we measure Gods Love by the Gift it is like that altogether unmeasurable Hence the Apostle tells us That there is a breadth and length and depth and height infinite dimensions in it such as pass the knowledg of men and angels Eph. 3.18 19. When God gave us the Creatures for our use he gave us but the drops and models of his Goodness but when he gave his Son for us he gave himself God was the Giver and God the Gift When God could swear by no greater he sware by himself when he could give no greater he gave himself Here was Love acted to the uttermost elevated to the highest point a greater Gift there could not be 'T was great Love in Jonathan to David that for him he would strip himself of his Robe nay and venture the cast of a Javelin from an angry Father But what manner of Love was it in God that
Scarcely for a righteous man will one dye yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to dye But God commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Rom. 5.7 8. Sometimes possibly though but rarely one may dye for a righteous good Man who is a blessing to the place where he lives But this was Christs Prerogative to dye for Sinners this was the supereminency of Divine Love to give him so to do Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends Joh. 15.13 Thus our Saviour A greater proof or effect of Love than death there cannot be but Love is then in an higher and more excellent degree when that death is as in our Saviours case it was for Enemies than it is when the death is for Friends Damon and Pythias two intimate friends were willing to dye one for another but Christ died for Enemies In Creation God overcame Nullity but in Redemption he overcomes Enmity it self and that in a wonderful way He assumes an humane Nature and in it pours out his precious blood to melt and break that horrible Enmity which was in us against him If we would see more of this Love let us turn our eyes upon the evils removed and the good procured by our Saviour Christ All evils are either Moral such as sin or which waits upon the other Physical such as punishment all of them are removed by our Saviour who saves from Sin and Wrath. Man was under the guilt of Sin and so under the Wrath of God Wrath in the threatning hung as an horrible Tempest over his head and within there was the dreadful Eccho of it in Conscience But the Sufferings of Christ were so satisfactory and meritorious for us that as soon as we return and believe on him all our guilt is done away It 's true the guilt in it self in the intrinsecal desert of punishment is perpetual because sin cannot cease to be sin but it doth no longer redound upon our persons to oblige us to punishment The heavy burden is now lifted off from Conscience the black Cloud of Wrath is dissolved the cursing Law hath nothing to say against us There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Rom. 8.1 It 's true afflictions may fall upon a Believer but there is no Condemnation there is not a jot of Wrath in them they are rather Castigatory than Penal managed in the hand of Mercy rather than Justice In the issue it appears that there was Love and Faithfulness in them that even in those afflicting paths Mercy and Truth are found all things shall work together for good unto the Believer Afflictions and all These serve for excellent purposes to fan off his Vanity melt away his Corruption alarm his spiritual Watch refine his golden Graces cast him into the Image of a meek suffering Christ unearth unself him and elevate his affections towards the everlasting rest which is above Affliction after it hath budded and blossomed with such precious fruits is no longer evil but an excellent good It 's true also that death Temporal will seize upon him but the curse is gone the sting out death which at first was a punishment now hath a blessing in it It was Originally introduced by sin but through the admirable Grace of our Saviour it carries away those reliques of sin which no Tears Prayers Watchings Pious endeavours could utterly extirpate whilest we are in the body it throws down the earthen walls into their mother-dust But who would not dye and with Hilarion bid his Soul Go out that he might be rid of sin There is indeed a passage out of a Temporal life but it is into an Eternal one The soul when it leaves its old friend the body flies into the blessed Region there to enjoy God in an immediate manner to read truth in its Original and taste goodness in the Fountain the body which at present dissolves into dust shall wake again and be made like to the glorious body of Christ Mortal shall put on immortality corruptible incorruption death shall be swallowed up in victory it is no longer an evil to the Believer Again Man was under the Power of Sin and so under the Tyranny of Satan Sin was a Lord a Ruler over him not only over his outward man whose members were the weapons of it but over the inward too It had strong-holds in his Reason and a throne in his Will he was a drudg a slave to his lusts hurried up and down by one Corruption or other wandring in error or swelling in pride or pining in envy or boiling in malice or burning in lust or drowning in sensual pleasures some way or other serving his Iniquity Satan the Ruler of darkness hath a Palace in his heart and keeps possession there upon all occasions he blows up Original Corruption into sinful motions motions into consents consents into acts acts into habits Thus he carries on the sinner in a circle of sinning till inevitable ruin overtake him but in and through Christ there is deliverance from this horrible servitude The Holy Spirit comes and rescues the sinner it opens his eyes to see himself standing as he doth at the brink of Hell and Death it melts him into tears and godly sorrows for sin it breaks down the strong-holds and throne of sin in the heart it casts out Satan and the hellish furniture it translates the poor sinner from the power of darkness into the Kingdom of Christ into a Region of Grace and Power where Sin and Satan cannot have the Victory Those precious Promises that sin shall not have Dominion that Satan shall be bruised under our feet are now sealed and experimented in the heart The poor Captive is now brought out of Bondage into the true liberty of Holiness and Obedience Here we see the matchless incomparable Love of God which delivered us from so many great Evils Hezekiah being rescued from Death made his acknowledgments O Lord thou hast in love to my soul delivered me from the pit of corruption or as the Original hath it Thou hast loved my soul from the pit of corruption Every Believer who hath tasted of the great Salvation may say Lord thou hast loved me from Sin Satan Death Hell by delivering me from all these evils Moreover as all evils were removed so all good things were procured by Christ Temporals were so the world owes its standing to him Justice but for his expiatory Sacrifice would have dashed it down about the sinners â—ears Sin but for the Cement of his blood would have unframed all things in nature that right to the Creature which we forfeited by our iniquity was restored again by his Merits The Believer shall now have so much of the world as infinite Wisdom and Mercy more competent Judges than humane Reason and Will shall think a fit portion for him and what he hath he shall have with the Love
be upon our spiritual watch we should set guards within and without that sin may not creep in by the ports of sense nor rise up out of the deep of the heart When a temptation approaches to us we should say as an holy man did Auferte ignem adhuc enim paleas habeo Take away the fire yet I have chaff within If a Jonah fall into a pet against God if a David wallow in adultery and blood if a Peter deny his Lord with a curse What may not we do The remnants of Original sin in us should make us keep a watch over our hearts and ponder the path of our feet Our flesh is an Eve a Tempter within us nay a kind of Devil as an Ancient speaks Nemo sibi de suo palpet quisque sibi Satan est CHAP. X. Chap. 10 Touching Grace The fountain of it Gods love The streams supernatural gifts The center Heaven It s freeness in that all perish not in the fall Original sin meriting death and Christ being a free gift It s freeness in chusing a Church to God Election not of all no Legislative act but a singling out of some to life in an infallible way and meerly of Grace It s freeness in the external and internal Call The distinction between the two Calls The efficacy of Grace as to the Principles of Faith and other graces with the manner of their production as to actual believing and willing with the proofs of it as to perseverance in faith and holiness The Habits of Grace defectible in themselves but not in their dependence HAVING spoken of Original Sin I shall next consider of Grace which heals that deadly wound Grace in the primary notion of it is the Love and Good-will of God towards sinners and in a secondary sense it is those saving-gifts which are derived from that Love These are called Graces because they lye in mans heart as beams of that eternal Grace which is in Gods and tend to that Glory in Heaven which is Grace consummate Gods will goes foremost and works those Graces in mans which make him meet for eternal happiness The fountain of Grace is the free-love of God the streams of it are supernatural gifts in men the center of it is the glory of Heaven These things shew us the true notion of Grace 1. The Fountain of Grace is Gods free Love which moves it self and gratuitously flows out in spiritual blessings these issue out of love and that is a motive to it self Emphatical is that of the Apostle If by grace then it is no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace but if it be of works then it is no more grace otherwise work is no more work Rom. 11.6 It is essential to Grace to be gratuitous unless it be so it loses its nature Upon this account Pelagius that Enemy of Grace but for his counterfeit Recantation had had in the Palestine Council a just Anathema for that saying Gratiam dari secundum merita That Grace was given according to merits or works Aust Hyp. l. 3. When the Pelagians said Quia ego prior volui Deus voluit Because I first willed therefore God willed Saint Austin tells them That they brought in Merit that Grace was then no longer Grace In omni opere sancto saith he prior est voluntas Dei posterior liberi arbitrii In every holy work Gods will is first in order Si vel tantillum boni a Deo non est jam non omnis boni essector est eoque nec Deus Bucer and then mans Without this order Grace cannot be Grace nor God God If he be not the Fountain of all good if the least good start up and anticipate his will he is not as becomes him the origine of all good The Fountain of Grace must therefore be in his Love 2. The streams of it are Supernatural Gifts It 's true natural benefits are in some sense grace but this is not the noted acception of the word in Scripture This acception was but Pallium Pelagianorum the Pelagians cloak under which they hid their Heresie Hence Aust Epist 105. when that question was asked What that Grace was which Pelagians thought was given without any precedent merits Answer was made That it was the humane nature in which we were made for before we were we could not merit a being Thus they confounded Grace and Nature together but the gifts of Grace are above the sphear of Nature and altogether undue to it Indeed in Innocency righteousness was natural to man not that it was a principle of Nature or an emanation from thence but that it was necessary and due to that Integrity which God would set up the human nature in God would make man very good and how that could be without righteousness I know not Moral goodness is that which is proper to a reasonable creature neither can it be wanting but there will be a maim in the creature There was in man an Union of rational powers in which he had communion with Angels and sensitive in which he had communion with Beasts This Union could not be made in a perfect orderly manner unless the sensitive powers being the more ignoble were subjected to the rational being the more excellent faculties that subjection could not be without a righteousness This is the rectitude and harmony of humane nature without it all the parts and powers of the Soul must needs jangle into confusion God would have man to serve and obey him in a perfect manner And how could this be without a principle of holy love Which way should there be actual righteousness without original Without an internal rectitude man could not love God as he ought amore amicitiae with a love of friendship for his own sake and without such a love referring all to God and his glory all mans acts a primo ad ultimum must needs be sin God would set before a man a most glorious end the happiness of the beatifical vision And how should man ever arrive at it without righteousness Or want that righteousness which qualifies for it Such a want would set him below the most contemptible creatures none of which are destitute of that furniture which is requisite for the reaching of their ends In all these respects righteousness was natural and in a sort due unto man in Innocency But after mans fall and forfeiture of Original righteousness saving gifts are altogether supernatural not only as being above the power of nature but as being totally undue to it To the state of Innocency righteousness was in a sense due but to the state of Corruption there was nothing due but wrath 3. The center of it is the Glory of Heaven Grace prepares a Kingdom for Believers Hence God bids them come and inherit the Kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the World Matt. 25.34 it prepares them for the Kingdom Hence that of the Apostle Giving thanks to the father who
hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light Col. 1.12 The first rise of Grace is in the bosom of eternal love the appearance of it in men is in supernatural gifts the period and center of it is in the Glory of Heaven Two things in this point of Grace offer themselves to our consideration the freeness of Grace and the Divine efficacy of it First The freeness of Grace is to be considered and that in two or three particulars 1. It is of Free-Grace that all mankind doth not eternally perish in the ruines of the fall That there is a possibility of Salvation for any one Son of Adam When the Angels sinned but one sin God turned them down into chains of darkness for ever Might he not in justice have dealt so with fallen men He was not bound to repair the Angels those golden Vessels once inmates of Heaven and who can who dares conceive such a thought That he was bound to repair men who are but Images of clay dwelling in the lower World I know many differences are assigned Man sinned by seduction Devils by self-motion in the fall of Man all the human nature fell in the fall of Angels all the Angelical nature fell not The sin of Angels was more damnable than Mans because their nature was more sublime than his Men are capable of repentance but Devils not because whatever they once choose they do will immovably But alas all these are but extra-Scriptural conjectures Man though tempted was voluntary in the transgression all men were involved in the fall but that 's no apology for the sin The sin of Man if not so high as that of Angels was yet a damnable one It is a vain dream to suppose that Almighty Grace could not have wrought a gracious change in Devils That which differences us from them is as the Scripture tells us no other than the meer Grace and Philanthropy of God towards us he might justly have left us under that wrath which our apostacy deserved Two things will make this evident 1. Original sin which reaches to all is properly sin and being such merits no less than eternal death We all sinned in Adams sin by that one man sin entred into the world The disobedience of that one constituted all sinners which unless it had been imputatively theirs it could never have done The want of Original righteousness is properly sin because it is the want of that which ought to be in us it ought to be in us because the pure spiritual Law calls for an holy frame of heart it ought to be in us or else we are not fallen creatures but are as we ought to be If it ought to be in us then the want of it is properly sin The Apostle proving that all are sinners and short of the Glory of God tells us That there is none righteous no not one none that understandeth none that seeketh after God They are all gone out of the way They are together become unprofitable There is no fear of God before their eyes Rom. 3. Which words denote a want of that habitual righteousness which ought to be in all even in little Infants That want is sin else the Apostle could not from thence conclude That all Infants not excepted have sinned and come short of the glory of God To want habitual righteousness which ought to be in us is to be sinners and short of our original That original concupiscence which is in all is properly sin it is over and over called sin in Scripture it is the root and black fountain of all impiety it is opposite to the Law and Spirit of God it impels to all sin it fights against all graces and particularly against that of love to God where the creature is inordinately loved there God is not loved with all the heart and Soul These things make it appear That Original sin is properly sin and if so it merits no less than death eternal The Scripture abundantly testifieth this The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6.23 In which we have a double Antithesis Wages is opposed to Gift and eternal Death to eternal Life By one man sin entred into the world and death by sin Rom. 5.12 Not meer infelicity but sin entred not meer temporal death but eternal followed upon it Hence the Apostle tells us That there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 judgment unto condemnation and that upon all men vers 16 and 18. We are by nature children of wrath even as others Eph. 2.3 He doth not say by practise or custom but by nature we are Children of wrath that is worthy of it Nature as corrupted is here opposed to Grace which as the Text after speaks saves us wrath appertains to nature salvation to grace This one Text is as a stroke of Lightning * Hoc uno verbo quasi fulmine totus homo quantus quantus est prosternitur Bez. in Loc. to lay all men flat and prostrate before God even little Infants being unclean in themselves cannot if unregenerate stand at Gods right hand and enter into the holy Heavens they must therefore stand at his left and go into darkness Hence St. Austin †Finge Pelagiane locum ex officina perversi doginaâ—is tui ubi alieni a Christi gratia vitam requiei gloriae possidere parvuli possint Aust Hyp. l. 5. tells the Pelagians who denied Original sin That they must forge out of their Shop of Heresy a middle place for such Infants as are Aliens from the Grace of Christ If Infants are unregenerate they cannot enter Heaven the place of bliss If as the Pelagians say they are free from sin they cannot go to Hell the place of misery Tertium ignoramus A third place I know not nor can find any such in Scripture They are therefore subject to eternal death for their Original sin The sum of this Argument we have in Anselm Si originale peccatum sit aliquod peccatum De conc Virg. cap. 27. necesse est omnem in eo natum in illo non dimisso damnari If Original sin be sin it is necessary that every one born in it should be condemned for it unless it be pardoned it being impossible that any one should be saved so much as with one unremitted sin If Original sin be indeed sin and do merit death eternal then God may justly inflict that death for it seeing he cannot be unjust in doing an act of justice in inflicting that punishment which is due to sin 2. As on Mans part there is a merit of eternal death so on Gods the mission of Christ to save us was an act of meer Grace This is set forth in Scripture God commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Rom. 5.8 In this was manifested the love of God towards us because he sent
that such things as these should be made known to us that Heaven should open and let down such mysteries before our eyes What manner of persons ought we to be who live in the shining days of the Gospel who have so much of the Divine glory breaking out upon us let us a little sit down and consider how infinite is the malignity of Sin how deep the stain of it when God who cannot nugas agere made such ado about the expiation of it when nothing less than the Blood of his own Son could wash it out Now to have slight thoughts of it is to Blaspheme the great Atonement now to indulge it is to rake in the wounds of Christ and Crucify him afresh to our selves How precious should Christ be to us how altogether lovely what a Person is the Eternal Word what an Union is Immanuel God and Man in one what a Laver is his Blood what a sweet-smelling Sacrifice is his Death who can tell over the unsearchable riches of his merit or set a rate high enough upon that righteousness of his which refreshes the heart of God and Man what a Sponsor was he who satisfied infinite Justice for the Sin of a World and what an excellent head who makes his Righteousness reach down to every Believer in the World who would not now say that he is totus desideria altogether loves and desires what little things are Worlds and Creatures what Dross and Dung in comparison what a wretched thing is a dead and frozen heart which will not warm and take fire at so ravishing an Object Who would now live in the old Adam the head of Sin and Death any longer or content himself in any state short of an Union with Christ in whom Righteousness and Life are to be had O how should we act our Faith upon him and give him the glory of his Righteousness and Satisfaction by believing How should we venture our Souls what ever our Debts are upon the great Surety Who paid the utmost Farthing and had a total discharge in his Resurrection How we should hide our selves in the Clefts of the Rock in the precious wounds of Christ as in a City of refuge where the avenging Law satisfied therein can never pursue and overtake us How willing should we now be to have Christ reign over us What! hath he come from Heaven and in our flesh fulfilled all Righteousness and by his obedience unto Death even the death of the Cross satisfied for our sins and turned away the dreadful wrath due to the same and shall he not Reign over us Hath he bore the heavy end of the Law the sinless obedience which we could not perform and the curse which if we had been under would have sunk us down into Hell for ever and shall he not Reign over us when by a condescending Law of Grace suited to our frailty he calls for nothing from us but sincerity Oh! prodigious ingratitude who would be guilty of it or can be so that is a Believer indeed Let us therefore by Faith joyn our selves to Christ that we may be justified by his Righteousness and as a real proof of it let us resign up our selves in sincere obedience to him that having our fruit unto holiness we may have the end everlasting Life CHAP. XII Chap. 12 Touching an Holy Life It is not from Principles of Nature it is the fruit of a renewed regenerated heart it issues out of Faith and Love it proceeds out of a pure intention towards the Will and Glory of God it is humble and dependant upon the influences of Grace it requires a sincere mortification of Sin without any Salvo or exception it stands in an exercise of all Graces it makes a man holy in Ordinances alms prosperity adversity contracts calling there is such an exercise of graces as causeth them to grow The conclusion of the Chapter HAving treated of Justification I come in the Last place to speak of an Holy Life which is an inseparable companion of the other Where Grace justifies and pardons there it heals where Christ is made Righteousness there he is made Sanctification these Twins of Grace can never be parted but ye are sanctified but ye are justified saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 6.11 Justification and Sanctification are ever in conjunction as in God Justice and Holiness In Christ the Priestly and Kingly Offices in the Gospel the Promises and the Precepts and in the Sinner the Guilt and the Power of Sin are in Conjunction so in Believers Justification and Sanctification are in Conjunction Were this Conjunction dissolved the other could not well together consist the person being Justified and yet not Sanctified Gods Justice must spare him yet his Holiness must hate him Christ must satisfie and save him as a Priest yet not command him as a King The Promises must speak comfort to him yet are the Precepts broken by him the guilt of Sin must be done away yet the power and love of it must remain but none of these can stand together neither can Justification stand without Sanctification An Holy life is a life separate and consecrated unto God the life of Sense is common to bruits a life of Reason is common to Men but a life of Holiness is separate and consecrated unto God the Epicurean would frui carne enjoy the Flesh the Stoick would frui mente enjoy his Mind and Reason but the Holy Man would frui Deo enjoy his God The Jewish Doctors call God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 place and the holy Man makes him such he would not go out from God or seek any other Being but in him he would not dwell in the barren Region of Self or Creatures but in God the Fountain and Ocean of all goodness his works are all wrought in God his rest and center are only in his Will and Glory he is not his own any longer The great Titles of Creator and Redeemer proper to his God will not suffer him to be so it is no less than Sacriledge in his eyes to be his own or so much as in a thought to steal away ought from God to whom his Spirit Soul Body all is due his Reason is not his own as one who knows it to be a borrowed light he resigns it up to God the Father of lights to be illuminated by him and to the holy mysteries to be ruled by them without asking any why's or wherefores Those two words Deus Dixit God saith is Satisfaction enough to him his Will is not his own it is not a Rule or Law to it self God is indeed such to himself but the Holy man will not perversely imitate God or like the Prince of Tyrus Cum homo vult aliquid per propriam voluntatem Deo aufert quasi suam Coronam Ansel de simil cap. 8. set his Heart as the Heart of God Ezek. 28.2 He will not snatch at God's Crown or assume his Glory he knows that his Will was made to
in Christ and then there is a Progeny of good Works first he quickens and gives us a Spiritual Being and then we walk and live an holy Life first there is a good Treasure of Grace in the Heart and then the good things are brought forth out of it Matth. 12.35 Ye have obeyed from the heart that form of Doctrine whereto or into which you were delivered saith St. Paul Rom. 6.17 Here we see whence an holy Life springs the Gospel was not only delivered to them but by the Regenerating Spirit they were delivered into it and cast into the holy Mould of it and this was the true Reason of their Obedience in an holy Life Of his own Will begat he us with the Word of Truth that we should be a kind of First-fruits of his Creatures Jam. 1.18 The Apostle in the precedent verse shews us the infinite Sun or Fountain of all good things and in this Verse he gives us a famous instance in Regeneration opposing it to that concupiscence which is immediately before spoken of conpiscence is the Fountain of sin and so is Regeneratition of holy Obedience the very end of Regeneration is that we might be a kind of First-fruits of his Creatures separate from the World and consecrated unto God in an holy Life living as those who by Regenerating Grace are made a choice portion and peculiar People to him It is observed by some Divines That the Holy Patriarchs had barren Wives that their Posterity might shadow out the Church which is not produced by the power of Nature but of Grace the end of which production is that Fruit might be brought forth unto God in an Holy Life The Hebrew Doctors say That God out of his great Name Jehovah added the Letter He to the Names of Abraham and Sarah Hence that of the Cabalists Abram non gignit sed Abraham Sarai non parit sed Sarah In allusion to this I may say It is not the Humane Principles but the Divine Nature which Believers the Children of Abraham partake of that makes them bring forth the Fruits of an holy Life We have this exemplified in a greater than Abraham even in Jesus Christ he was first conceived of the Holy Ghost and then gave us that incomparable Pattern of Holiness in his excellent Life Sutably we are first supernaturally begotten to a Spiritual Being and then we live an Holy life He that Sanctifieth and they who are Sanctified are all of one Hebr. 2.11 Hence Camero observes De Eccles 223. that between Christ and Believers there is a wonderful Communion of Nature Both have an humane Nature Sanctified by the Holy Spirit he was conceived by the Holy Spirit they are regenerated by it that they may live unto God but to make this point the clearer I shall consider the two parts of the new Creature that is Faith and Love I call them so because the Apostle who saith Neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new Creature Gal. 6.15 saith also Neither Circumcision availeth nor uncircumcision but Faith which worketh by Love Gal. 5.6 intimating that Faith and Love are two great parts of the new Creature an holy Life flows from both these Hence some Learned Divines observe that the good Acts of Heathens have an essential defect in them the good Acts of Believers have only a gradual defect but the good Acts of Heathens have an essential one in that they do not flow from Faith and Love and so cannot Center in the Glory of God Therefore St. Austin retracts that Speech wherein he said Retr lib. 1. cap. 3. Philosophos virtutis luce fulcisse that the Philosophers did shine with the light of virtue But to speak distinctly of these two Graces First An Holy Life-issues out of Faith an holy Life is virtually in Faith and proceeds actually from it Faith sees the commands of God to be as they are richly Engraven with the Stamps and Signatures of Divine purity and equity such as Proclaim that God is in them of a truth and that they are the very Counterpains of his Heart and from hence it presses the Believer unto obedience and secretly dictates that these are the very Will of God and must be done Thy word is very pure therefore thy Servant loveth it Saith David Psal 119.140 The Emphatical therefore in the Text cannot be practically understood by any thing but Faith the Carnal Mind which is enmity to God would argue from the purity of the command to the hatred of it but Faith such is its Divine Genius argues from thence to Love and Obedience It doth not only point out the Divine Authority which is stampt upon the command but shew the purity and rectitude which is there to attract us into our duty and that we may do it in a free filial manner Faith derives a free Spirit from Christ to make obedience easie and natural to us a Man with his old Heart drudges in the ways of God and brings forth duties as the Bond-woman did her Son in a dead Servile manner but when Faith comes the commands are easie and the Will is upon the Wheel ready to move sweetly and strongly in compliance thereunto The Believer is Spirited and new Natured for Obedience his Heart is in a posture to do the Will of God every where Faith finds Arguments and Impulsives for it Doth it look upon the Life of Christ it immediately concludes these are the steps of our dear Lord and shall we not follow him After whom shall we walk if not after him It 's true he walked in pure sinless perfection such as we cannot reach but the gracious Covenant hath stooped to our frailty and made us sure that sincerity will be aceepted and how can we deny it or refuse to comply with such condescending Grace Doth it look upon Christs wounds and bloody Death these will cast shame and confusion upon an unholy life May any one imagine that our Saviour bore the Curse and Wrath of God that we might provoke it or expiated our sins at so dear a rate as his own Blood and Life that we might indulge them who sees not now that Sin is bloody and holiness amiable and what easie terms are proposed to us when the Death and Curse was only Christ's and the sincere Obedience is all that is required to be ours Doth it look up for the Spirit the purchase of Christ's death We well know where that is to be found the more we walk in the holy Commands and ways of God the more are we like to have of the gales and Divine comforts of it while we are obeying and doing the Will of God that Spirit will usher in assistances and Heavenly consolations upon us to give us an experimental proof of that Promise That the Holy Spirit is given to them that obey him doth it look within the vail to the Rivers of pleasures and plenitudes of joy in Heaven where pious Souls see Truth in the
will be loved no longer nay it will look according to its own hue like a vile base deformed thing fit for nothing but to be hung upon a Cross there to die and expire Hence it appears that an holy Man as long as his Faith discovers a vanity and nothingness in the fairest prospects of the World must needs overcome the World and the lusts of it Again An holy Man according to that supernatural Consecration which is upon him surrenders up his Love and Joy and Delight to God and Christ and Heavenly things the stream of his Heart which before run out upon the lying vanities here below is now turned to the excellent things above his Conversation is in Heaven his Treasure and his Heart are both there and then what must become of Sin must it not needs die away and become as a Body without a Spirit in it It is the Love and the Joy and the Delight of Man which animate Sin but if these are not here any longer but risen and gone away into the upper World to place and center themselves upon the excellent objects which are there then Sin must needs languish and die away it hath nothing to animate or enliven it any more were this Divine surrender in perfection Sin could not so much as be and proportionably where it is but in truth only Sin must needs grow heartless and powerless Notable is that of the Apostle Walk in the Spirit i.e. in the Elevations of holy Faith and Love and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of Flesh Gal. 5.16 Sin shall grow weak and by little and little give up the Ghost To conclude this Character An holy Man which way soever he looks sees just reason to mortify Sin the rectitude of the Law saith It must die for its crookedness and ataxy the threatning of Death saith It must die or the Soul must die in the room of it The bleeding Wounds of our dying Lord say That the Crucifier must not be spared but die after that manner That excellent Guest the holy Spirit saith It is too vile a thing to live under the same roof with it self The precious immortal Soul saith The wounds and turpitudes of it are too intolerable to be endured any longer Heaven that blessed Region saith It is not to be tolerated by any who mean to enter into that place We must then mortifie the deeds of the Body that we may live Rom. 8.13 that we may live a Life of Holiness here and a Life of Glory in another World Sixthly An holy Life is not made up of the Exercise of this or that Grace in particular but of the Exercise of all Graces pro hic nunc as occasion serves St. Peter saith That we must add to our Faith Vertue to Vertue Knowledge to Knowledge Temperance to Temperance Patience to Patience Godliness to Godliness Brotherly kindness and to Brotherly kindness Charity 2 Pet. 1.5 6 7. Holy Men who are partakers of the Divine Nature spoken of immediately before have Grace upon Grace and must as occasion serves exercise one after another that there may be a Constellation of Graces appearing in their Lives to give the more full resemblance of the Perfections which are in their Father in Heaven our Saviour Christ in whom all Graces are set forth in lively and Orient colours and are really and practically exemplified to our view had this character justly given him he went up and down down doing good every step one odour of Grace or other brake forth from him Subjection to Parents or Magistrates or Zeal towards God or Humility in washing his Disciples feet or Meekness under false Accusations or melting Compassions letting out cures on the Bodies and Heavenly truths on the Souls of Men or admirable Patience under great sorrows and sufferings one glorious way of Holiness or other was always coming from him Proportionably an holy Man Who is a living Member of Christ must be in his measure holy in all manner of Conversation 1 Pet. 1.15 In the Original it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which way soever he turn himself he must be holy in it he must have a respect to God at every turn this will best appear by the particular parts of his Life Take an holy Man in Divine Ordinances there he is holy He would first be sure that he is in a right Church and in a right Ordinance in a right Church for there the Lord commands the Blessing even Life for evermore in a right Ordinance for unless the Institution be from God the Benediction cannot be expected from him and then he would serve God in a right manner and sanctify his Name in his approaches when he comes to an Ordinance he hath high thoughts of God as being the Infinite Majesty of Heaven the Excellency of all Perfections one whom Angels adore and Devils tremble at accordingly he lies low before God he serves him with Reverence and godly Fear he draws nigh to him yet forgets not the infinite distance between them he blushes to think that he must go before so pure a Majesty with the dust of Mortality about him and again he blushes to think that he must do so in the spots and rags of many Infirmities which being in the Soul are much more abasive than those in the Body The Beams of the Divine Glory strike an holy awe into him and make him conclude That a Soul though entirely given up is to God but a little very little thing but as a Beam to the Sun or a drop to the Ocean and which is matter of more shame and abasement the Soul is much less in that the innate corruption holds back and the bewitching World steals away a great deal of it from God very little or rather nothing it is that we can give to him however the holy Man such is his Divine temper would not abate any thing but endeavour in Ordinances to give God his Spirit and highest Intention he knows that God is a Spirit and meer bodily worship is as nothing to him what is the bowing of the Knee when there is an Iron Sinew of Rebellion within or the lifting up of the Hands or Eyes when there is an earthly depression upon the affections towhat purpose is an open Ear when the Heart is deaf and shut up against holy Truths And what a shadow a meer lye in worship is the Body when the Mind is stole away and gone after Vanity He therefore sets himself to serve God in spirit and truth while God is speaking to him in his Sacred Word he would have no converse at all with worldly objects he bids these stand by and not interrupt his attention while he is speaking to God in prayer he would not only pour out words to God but his very Heart and Spirit if it were possible all of it without reserving so much as a glance or a piece of a broken thought towards carnal things a Duty to the Great God is a
ascendendi ad altiorem non potest esse sine fundamento praesumptionis nec sine inclusione tepiditatis nec sine periculo vivendi in vitiis spiritualibus Niremb this would shew him to be no Holy Man to have no Grace at all He is still a breathing and pressing after more Grace the Divine touch which in Conversion was made upon his Heart causes it ever after to point towards God the Fountain of Grace The sweet taste of Grace which he hath had makes him earnestly thirst after more it 's true he has not a thirst of total indigence in this respect he shall never thirst John 4.14 but he hath a thirst of Holy desires after more Grace his Soul pants after more of the Divine Image Oh! that he were more like unto God! that his Will were swallowed up in the Divine Will Nothing can satisfie him unless he be made more Holy He avoids those things which hinder Spiritual growth he will not lie in a sink of sensual Pleasures he will not clog himself with a burden of earthly things he will not fret away himself in Envy he will not puff up himself with Pride and Presumption he will not wither away in an empty fruitless Profession he will not grieve the Holy Spirit of Grace or willfully make any wounds in Conscience All these will be impediments to growth in Grace therefore he puts them away from him he busies himself in those things which may make him grow he is much in prayer that God would give the increase that the showres of Holy Ordinances may not drop and come down in vain that the Gales of the Holy Spirit may fill every Ordinance that the Sun-shine of God's Favour may make every thing prosper He knows that none can bless but he who institutes nothing can make rich in Grace but the Blessing for that he waits in all his Devotions He is much in the Holy Word he hears reads meditates digests it lays it up as a Treasure keeps it as his Life feeds on it as his Meat hath his Being in it and all that he may grow in Grace that beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord he may be changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 That the Face of his Heart and Life may shine with a Divine Lustre and Beauty He acts his Faith upon Christ he adheres and cleaves to him He aspires after more close Union and Communion with him that by a Divine Spirit and Life from him he may increase with the increase of God Col. 2.19 that he may live like one in Union and Conjunction with Christ that he may honour that Glorious Head in whom the Spirit is above all measure and from whom it flows down upon all his Members He exercises himself unto Godliness he stirs or blows up his Holy Graces He repents believes loves obeys runs strives labours to do the Will of God and all that he may hold on his way and grow stronger and stronger Job 17.9 In a word he esteems it an horrible shame and disparagement to be barren and unfruitful under the Gospel What Is the Divine Nature which he partakes of for nothing every little living Creature propagates and brings forth its Image and shall the Divine Nature have no progeny of good Works to resemble its Father in Heaven Are Ordinances given in vain the outward Rain hath its return in Herbs and Flowers and excellent Fruits of the Earth and shall the Showers of Ordinances which come from an higher Heaven than the visible one have no return at all to what purpose is Christ an Head to Believers An Head is to communicate life and motion to the Members and can the Members of so glorious an Head as he is be dry and wither away in an empty unfruitfulness Why is the Spirit communicated but to profit withal when it moved upon the Waters at first it brought forth abundance of excellent Creatures in the Material World and shall it it do nothing in the Spiritual one or shall it produce Heavenly Principles in Men and not bring them into act or exercise Nothing can be more incongruous than such things as these The Holy Man therefore makes it his great business in the World to grow in Grace and in the Knowledg of of Christ to abound more and more in Obedience and Holy Walking till he come to the Crown of Life and Righteousness in Heaven We see what an Holy Life is nothing remains but that we labour after it lapsed Nature lies too low to elevate it self into Holy Principles and Actions how should we cast down our selves at God's feet for Regenerating Grace How much doth it concern us to wait upon him in the use of means to have our Minds enlightened to see Spiritual things to have our Hearts new made and moulded into the Divine Will to have a precious Faith to receive Christ in all his Offices to have an Holy Love to inflame the Heart towards God It is God's Prerogative to work supernatural Principles in us let us then look up to him to have them wrought in us We have lost the Crown and Glory of our Creation we are sunk into an horrible gulf of sin and misery but Oh! let our Eyes be upon God he can set to his Hand a second time and create us again unto Good Works he can let down an Arm of Power and lift us up out of the pit of Corruption nothing is too hard for him he can turn our stony Heart into Flesh he can by an omnipotent Suavity make our unwilling Will to be a willing one Oh! wait for this day of Power and when it comes give all the Glory to Free-grace and live as becomes the Sons of God who are born not of the Will of Man but of God it is too too much time we have spent in doing the Will of the Flesh let us now consecrate and dedicate our selves to the Will of God In the doing of it let 's live a Life of Faith and dependance upon the influences of Grace let 's get a single Eye a pure Intention towards the Will and Glory of God What good we do let 's do it in an holy Compliance with his Will in a sincere subserviency to his Glory This is right genuine Obedience in which God is owned as the first Principle and the last End if we depend not on him the Fountain of Grace how shall we stand or walk in Holiness If we direct not all our good Works to his Will and Glory how are our Works Holy or Consecrated unto God Let 's put away our high thoughts and proud reflexes upon self that we may wholly depend upon his Grace Let 's cast away all our Squints and corrupt aims from us that we may directly look to his Will and Glory Still let us remember that the work of Mortification must be carried on if we indulge sin we rent off our selves
in man there is his Image but a finite a created one but Jesus Christ is the infinite increated Image of God The nearer any creature doth in its perfections approach to God the more it reveals him life shews forth more of him than meer being sense than life Reason than all the rest but oh what a spectacle hath Faith when an humane nature shall be taken into the Person of God when the fulness of the Godhead shall dwell in a creature Hypostatically Here the Eternal Word which framed the World was made flesh the infinite Wisdom which lighted up Reason in man assumed an Humanity never was God so in man never was man so united to God as in this wonderful Dispensation more glory breaks forth from hence than from all the Creation We have here the Center of the Promises the substance of the types and shadows the Complement of the Moral Law and Holiness and Righteousness not in letters and syllables but living breathing walking practically exemplified in the Humane nature of Jesus Christ CHAP. II. Chap. 2 Christ considered as a Prophet and a speculum The Divine Attributes shine in him particularly Wisdom The obstacles of Redemption to be removed The Son of God fit for the work many admirable conjunctions of God and Man of Justice and Mercy of Punishment and Obedience in Christs sufferings of Satisfaction and a kind of execution of the Law of Satisfaction and Merit of Merit and Example all tending to our Salvation The rare conquest of Sin Satan the World Death Humility of mind necessary The desperate issue of the pride of humane Reason need of Humility from the threefold state of Reason in Integrity after the Fall after Faith JESUS CHRIST as he is the eternal Son of God is the brightness of his glory and the express Image of his person Heb. 1.3 But because our weakness could not bear so excellent a Glory without being swallowed up by it he veiled himself in our flesh that he who was light of light in the eternal Generation might become the light of the World in an admirable Incarnation and such he was under a double notion He may be considered either as revealing the Gospel and thus he is the great Prophet who from his Fathers bosom brought down so many pretious truths and mysteries to the World or else as set forth in the Gospel in his conception birth life death resurrection and exaltation at Gods right hand and thus he is speculum Theologiae a pure glass of Divinity Hence the Apostle tells us that the light of the knowledg of the glory of God is in the face of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4.6 This latter Notion is that which this discourse aims at to contemplate those many Truths which are either lively expressed in the Incarnate Word or may be reasonably drawn from that incomparable Dispensation God that he might help our weakness and attract our faith to himself hath been pleased to come as it were out of his unapproachable light and manifest himself in Attributes such as Wisdom Holiness Justice Grace Mercy Power with the like These Rays of the divine Perfection are let down on purpose that we might sanctifie him in our hearts that our souls might be in a posture of holy humility faith fear love joy and obedience suitable to those Excellencies in him My first work therefore must be to shew how these Attributes are displayed in Jesus Christ We all with open face behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 3.18 Jesus Christ is that pure Glass wherein the glory of God that is the divine Attributes so eminently shine forth to us that we may contemplate them with open face To begin first with the Attribute of Wisdom this is the great Disposer which in all things places the Center and draws the lines fixes the end and harmonizes the means thereunto There is a fair impress of it in the work of Creation much more in that of Redemption a Nobler end there cannot be than Gods glory in the Salvation of lost man nor a more admirable means than God manifest in the flesh This is the Wisdom of God in a Mystery 1 Cor. 2.7 a thing more sublime than all the secrets in the Creation Humane reason may by its own innate light go into the outward Temple of Nature but into the Sanctuary of Evangelical mysteries it cannot unless supernaturally illuminated ever enter and when it is there it is capable but of a little portion thereof nay the very Angels who stoop down to pry into it are not able to search it to the bottom nor to tell over the treasures of Wisdom which are in it This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the manifold wisdom of God Ephes 3.10 Never was such a constellation of Attributes as there is here that Power Wisdom and Goodness which appeared in Creation are here in greater lustre and over and above Holiness Justice and Mercy shine forth in their orient Excellencies never did the glory of God so break forth as it doth in this wonderful Dispensation That we may the better view it it will be requisite to consider first the obstacles in the way and then how admirably the divine Wisdom did pass through them and accomplish the great Work The Obstacles were such as these 1. Man turning apostate from his God and primitive Integrity justly sunk himself into an horrible gulf of sin and misery Sin lay upon him and wrath for sin the broken Law pronounced Death an eternal curse against him divine Justice appeared through the threatning like devouring fire ready to catch hold on him as fit fuel for eternal flames unless Satisfaction were made he must have gone into Hell the proper place for irremediable sinners in this forlorn estate what may he can he do Shall he melt himself into repentant tears or consecrate himself unto perpetual Holiness Alas depraved Nature cannot elevate it self unto these nor will Grace dispense them to an unatoned sinner nay could they be had they would be as finite nothings in comparison of that infinite Satisfaction which Justice calls for Sin is an infinite evil objectively infinite a kind of deicidium a striking at the Majesty Holiness Justice nay the very Life and Being of God and without another deicidium a crucifying the Lord of glory which is a Sacrifice of infinite value not to be expiated Which consideration also tells us that all the Angels in Heaven though creatures without spot could not have been able to have satisfied for the sin of man all that they have is but finite the burden of Gods wrath was much too heavy for them one sin sunk their fellow-Angels into chains of darkness and how could they stand under a world of iniquity The titles of Saviour and Redeemer which equal if not exceed that of Creator were too high for them and how could they who knew their own station and were confirmed therein attempt or so much as
way into the Holy of Holies into the Glory and Immortality there Notwithstanding all this without Repenting there is nothing but perishing without Holiness there is no seeing of God A life after the flesh must end in death The divine Justice and Law which was fully satisfied in Christ will seize upon rebellious sinners and ask a second Satisfaction as if there had been none before the divine hatred of sin which was so signally evident in the sufferings of Christ will appear again in their utter ruin and destruction Things are so knit together that Holiness must be necessary to make us happy Christ is a Saviour and a Lord too where he saves from Hell there he rules in the pure ways towards Heaven His blood and Spirit are ever in Conjunction if the one deliver from Guilt and Wrath the other subdues sin and implants Holiness Promises and Precepts which are intermixed in the Word must be both taken together into the heart where the latter hath not obedience the former can minister no comfort True Faith receives an entire Christ as it rests upon his Merits and Righteousness so it subjects to his Spirit and Word in all things That hope of Heaven which purifies not is indeed a Prefumption and not an Hope a Cobweb hanging in a vain heart and not an Anchor sure and stedfast entring into that within the Vail God out of love to Holiness hath linked it in with Christ Promises Faith Heaven and Salvation that no man can or may enjoy the one without the other till Christ can be divided his Sacrifice from his Scepter till Promises can be rent off from the holy Precepts to which they are annexed till a vital Faith can cease to do its function in acts of obedience till the holy Heavens can admit an unclean thing into them till then an unholy person cannot arrive at Happiness In all this we see how high a respect God hath for Holiness Now what remains but that Christians who have this glorious Attribute set before them should bethink themselves what manner of persons they ought to be God acts like himself Should not they do so their decorum stands in an holy Assimilation to him Christianity is as an Ancient hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a likeness to God to be after him in his imitable Perfections to be loving merciful holy patient as He is is to be and act like themselves One Virtue of God or other should be still breaking forth from them to tell the World that they are Christians Their finite love and mercy to fellow-creatures should speak their sense of that infinite love and mercy which they have tasted of Their patience under injuries should carry a resemblance of those Riches of goodness and forbearance which God hath spent upon themselves All their holy Graces should appear as so many Rays and little Images of Him who is the great Fountain and pattern of Holiness For them to walk worthy of God and in imitation of him is to walk condecently to themselves and in correspondence to Christianity Again God doth all things for Himself his own Glory and this must be the aim of Christians To be a Center to themselves they must not do it an higher and nobler End than God himself cannot be It is naturally just that He who is the first Principle of all things should be the last End That Axiom That God in all things must be glorified is fundamental Divinity that is the very thing which they must look to as their ultimate scope They should put away the by-glances at Self and the unbecoming Squints at base and false Ends that they may have a single Eye and a pure Intention to the true and great End of all things This is the very life and marrow of Religion it sanctifies holy Duties it spiritualizes civil and natural Actions it elevates the life unto the great Center of all things and by consecrating the Actions unto God gives them a kind of Immortality It transforms the Soul into a deiformity or divine Nature that it becomes one spirit with the Lord and falls in with the same Will and End with him If we will be like Christians the frame of our heart must be above the interests of flesh and self All those things which are off from the true End and Center must be in our eyes as so many impertinent follies the whole of our hearts and lives must be under a consecration to that Eternal Design The Glory of God blessed for ever Moreover God hath an hatred of sin and a love of Holiness and what is the work of Christians but to follow him Sin is so vile an evil that it cannot but be worthy of hatred To the holy God and his Attributes it is meer enmity and rebellion to the World it is a Gurse a blast of Vanity to the Soul an Ataxy turpitude and corruption to the Lord Christ as Nails a bloody Cross and Cup of Wrath. A horrible evil it is and to be hated accordingly a meer evil without mixture of good and to be hated with a pure hatred without mixture of Love An All-evil opposite to God the All-goodness and to be hated with all-hatred not a drop or degree of hatred should be let out upon any thing else All of it in the most intense degree and measure should be poured out upon it in what place or time soever it be still it is evil and upon that account to be hated perpetually and in all places And indeed if we do bethink our selves the groans of the poor creatures which are constant and everywhere round about us do very strongly move us hereunto the blots and turpitudes upon our own Souls tell us that we must hate it as much as we love the beauty and glory of our immortal Spirits The bloud and wounds of our dear Saviour cry out for Justice and Vengeance to be executed upon it And if we have any love for him we must crucifie it and cast it away as an accursed thing On the other hand Holiness cannot but be a fit Object for our love It is a pure thing let down from Heaven and if our love be there it can do no less than embrace so divine an off-spring as that is It is the very rectitude and true temper of Souls that which sets them in a right posture towards God and all holy things and for that reason more love is to be set upon it than that which is due to our own Souls Though in man it be but a little Ray or spark yet because of its divine Nature it doth in little resemble him who is all Holiness and Purity and upon that account our love which in its highest measures ascends up to Him must in proportion be due to it The amiableness of it in the Letter made the Holy man cry out Oh how I love thy Law Psalm 119.97 and how illustrious and attractive must it be when it is in its proper
go round about by his Sons blood when a word a merciful pleasure might have done the work without it These things premised I now proceed to shew how Punitive Justice was manifested in the Sufferings of Christ The Apostle speaks memorably God set forth Christ to be a propitiation to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins as if he had said There could be no remission without it and to make it the more emphatical he doubles the phrase To declare I say at this time his righteousness and withal he adds That he may be just Rom. 3.25 26. Righteousness that is Punitive Justice was eminently demonstrated in the propitiatory Sufferings of Christ unless this were so no sufficient account could be possibly given of them The Socinians who deny Christ's Satisfaction cannot give a tolerable reason thereof For what say they Christ in his Sufferings was an example of Patience I answer he was so but there was a Cloud of suffering-Martyrs before his Incarnation and then what singular thing was there in his Passion It 's true he was the greatest Pattern that ever was but had that been all why did he suffer as our Sponsor and Mediator why did he bear the Sin of a World and the Wrath of God due to it Here he was alone no man no Angel was able to trace or follow him The Saints may fill up the Sufferings of Christ in his mystical body but they cannot dare not aspire so far as to go about to imitate him in those satisfactory Ones which were in his own proper body Had he been only an exemplary Saviour he could have saved none at all Not those under the Old Testament for Example doth not like Merit look backward to those who were before it Nor those under the New for no meer Example no not that of an Incarnate God could have raised up Man out of the ruins of the Fall unless there had been in his Sufferings a Satisfaction to Justice The Guilt of Sin could not have been done away unless there had been therein a Merit to procure the Holy Spirit The Power of Sin could not have been subdued a meer exemplary Christ would have been but a titular Saviour The great design of raising up a Church out of the corrupt Mass of Mankind would have failed a Pattern only being too weak a bottom for it to stand upon Again they say Christ suffered that he might confirm the Covenant with his own blood I answer the Covenant was confirmed in Abrahams time Gal. 3.17 It was made immutable by Gods Word and Oath Heb. 6.17 It was ratified by the glorious Miracles of Christ it was sealed up by the precious blood of Martyrs and why must the Son of God dye for it or if he must might not a simple death serve Why was there a Curse and an horrible Desertion upon him There can be no imaginable coherence or connexion between his bearing the tokens of Gods Wrath and his confirming the Covenant of Grace the one can have no congruity or subserviency to the other The Scripture therefore which gives a better account tells us that he dyed to pay a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Ransom for us obtain eternal Redemption abolish and make an end of sin deliver from the world and the wrath to come reconcile to God purchase a Church and bring in everlasting Righteousness and an happy Immortality suitable thereunto These noble and excellent ends could not be compassed but by Sufferings penal and satisfactory such as had the bitter ingredients of Divine Wrath and displeasure in them Christ was not a meer Witness but a Priest Redeemer and Mediator His blood was not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Testimony but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Propitiation neither was it only confirmative of the Covenant but fundative all the Promises of Grace and Glory sprung up out of his satisfactory and meritorious Passion Further they say that in his Sufferings the immense Love of God was manifested I answer His immense Love was indeed very Illustrious in giving his Son but to what purpose was he given but to be a Propitiation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In this was love that he sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins saith the Apostle 1 John 4.10 When inexorable Justice-stood as an Obstacle in the way when Satisfaction must be made or mankind eternally perish then infinite Love appeared in giving the only begotten Son to be an expiatory sacrifice for us to satisfie Justice that we might partake of Mercy But if a Satisfaction were needless if the Sufferings of Christ might have been spared Where is the vehemence of Love It may seem rather to be in Remission of sin than in the Passion of our Saviour That Remission should come to us through his intervenient Death when that Death was not necessary looks not so much like an act of Love as of Sapience and yet how Sapience should unnecessarily and without just cause order so great a thing as the Death of Christ to be I cannot understand Moreover they say Christ suffered that his Death intervening we might be assured by his Resurrection of our own and of life eternal to be obtained in a way of Obedience But I answer This is rather to assign the end of Christs Resurrection than of his Death for his Death here comes in only by the by as a meer intervenient thing a causa sine qua non a thing which hath no proper end of its own It is not to me imaginable that such an one as he was should dye meerly to testifie to those things which were before fecured by the immutable Word and Oath of God himself O beatos nos quorum causâ Deus jurat miseros si ne juranti credimus saith Tertullian his Oath cannot but be a sufficient security It 's true Christs Death and Resurrection do assure Believers that they shall rise and live for ever in Glory But how do they do it what exemplarily only no surely his Death was satisfactory for sin and meritorious of life eternal His Resurrection was a Seal a pregnant proof that the Satisfaction made by his Death was full and consummate Hence arises in Believers an assurance of Life and Immortality the same being purchased and paid for by the blood of Jesus Had his Death and Resurrection been exemplary only which way should an assurance be drawn from it The argument if any must run after some such rate as this Jesus Christ God as well as Man one having Power over his own life free from all sin never seeing corruption able to overcome death it self did rise from the grave Ergo meer men having no power over their lives tainted with sin subject to corruption unable to conquer death shall rise also the inconsequence is apparent On the other hand let the argument run thus Jesus Christ did by a passion of infinite Merit and Satisfaction purchase eternal life for Believers Ergo they shall be sure
he would strip himself of his Orient pearl that he would give his Son his eternal Joy out of his bosom to assume an humane Nature and in it to bear the horrible stroke of Justice which was due to us for our iniquities In giving Laws and Promises God gives but a created Image of his Sanctity and Grace but in giving his Son he gave his essential increated Image to suffer in the flesh for us that his holy Image broken in the fall might be repaired again in us When we were off from God the Center of Souls and wandring in the foul ways of sin God out of his immense Love sent no less person than his only begotten Son to seek us and bring us back unto himself that we might be for ever happy in the fruition of him The greatness of this Love will yet further appear if we consider the manner how the Son of God was given for us The lower a man stoops and condescends to do another good the higher and more eminent is his Love the steps wherein the Son of God came down and humbled himself for us evidently declare the infinite height of that Love which made him stoop so low to compass our Salvation The first step was his Incarnation the word was made flesh he who was in the form of God took on him an humane Nature In the Creation infinite produced finite but here infinite assumed finite there Eternal brought forth Temporal but here Eternal took Temporal into it self and what a wonderful Condescension was this It 's true Reason in the Socinian laughs at it but Faith in the Christian must needs admire it Had the greatest Monarch on Earth confined himself to the poorest Cottage there it would have been nothing to God Tabernacling in the flesh Should the highest Angel in Heaven have put off his Perfections and come down into an humane Nature and from thence have passed into a brutal bestial one and so on into a tree or stone and at last into nullity it would not have been a Condescension comparable to that of the Son of God coming in the flesh His Sacred Person was infinitely more above humane Nature than an Angel is above matter or nullity it self and what unparallel'd Love was here The Creator became a Creature the Son of God assumed our nature and that after it was in us tainted with sin Dr. Bates of the Attributes fol. 171. The natural distance saith that excellent Man between God and the Creature is infinite the Moral between God and the sinful Creature if possible is more than infinite Yet the mercy of our Redeemer overcame this distance What an extasie of Love transported the Son of God so far as to espouse our nature after it was defiled and debased with sin He was essential Innocence and Purity yet he came in the similitude of sinful flesh which to outward view was not different from what was really sinful Thus he St. Austin calls Love junctura duo copulans a coupling of two together That after man had rent off himself from God by his Apostacy God should assume an humane Nature into himself to make up the breach and reduce Man into an Union with himself again Miror Deum in utero Virginis miror omnipotentem in cunabulis miror quemodo verbo Dei caro adhaeserit Cypr. de Nat. Christi must needs be Love in a transcendent excess infinite This made St. Cyprian overlook the wonders in Nature that he might ravish himself in the admirations of an Incarnate God The Condescension was here so great that God seems to neglect his own Majesty that he may comply with our necessities yet infinite Love would have the Son of God stoop a little lower and do honour to that Sacred Law which we had violated His humane Nature being an inmate in his infinite Person could not but have a right to Heaven and might have been immediately rapt up thither but Love set him another task He the great Lawgiver was made under the Law He who knew the Father in an infinity of light now knew him in a finite Reason He who embraced the Father in an infinity of Love now loved him in a finite Will He who was Lord of all was subject to Parents and Magistrates He who upholds the world went up and down as a man doing of good he stooped as low as the Ceremonial Law His pure flesh was circumcised he kept the Passeover and so obedientially stood under his own shadow This is a Condescension much greater than if all the Angels in Heaven had put themselves under the Laws of the lowest matter yet infinite Love would have the Son of God go down a little lower We have him hungry thirsty weary weeping suffering the contradiction of Sinners enduring the temptations of Satan all his life-through a man of sorrows at last we have him bleeding on a Cross hanging there as a spectacle of shame his hands and his feet were pierced his body was racked and tortured to death in a stinking Golgotha But which was the greatest of all he bore the Wrath of God and what was that Wrath which was due to the sin of a World or what those Sufferings which satisfied Justice for it What a great thing was the Passion of God and how much beyond the dissolution of a World Words cannot utter it thoughts cannot measure it That Love must be no less than immense which made the Son of God stoop so low to take us up out of the ruins of the Fall The Love of God will yet more appear if we take notice of the persons for whom Christ was given it was for man poor impotent man a creature worth nothing a bankrupt in Spirituals one void of all those Primitive Excellencies which at first Crowned the humane Nature for him it was that God was at so vast an expence as that of his own blood Spond Annal. Anno 431. 'T was great Charity in Paulinus Bishop of Nola that he would give himself in pawn to the Vandals for a poor Child but it was transcendent superlative Love in God to give his Son one worth Millions of Worlds and as rich in Excellencies as a Deity could make him to be emptied and humbled to death for poor worthless worms such as we are Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for our sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might be rich saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 8.9 The Riches of a God were laid out to set up broken man again But further it was for Sinners for Enemies such as were in Arms against God such as had broken his Laws despised his Authority cast off his Soveraignty and as much as in them lay stained his Glory These were the persons upon whose Salvation infinite Love set so high a rate that rather than fail the Life of God should be paid down for it The Apostle notably sets forth this
of God which as it is the highest suavity in it self so it pours out a delicious relish into all outward things Spirituals were so those initial Graces of Faith and Repentance which introduce us into an Union with Christ are from him He is a Prince and Saviour to give repentance Acts 5.31 To you it is given in the behalf of Christ to believe on him Phil. 1.29 As soon as we repent and believe we are justified in his blood and by a conjunction with him the natural Son we have power and right to become the Sons of God by Adoption and Grace The Holy Spirit the fountain of Graces and Comforts which was upon him the head above measure will fall down upon us his Members in a proportion every Grace every piece of the glorious new-creature is created in him In the power of his Merits and Spirit every comfort every beam of Divine Favour comes down to us through him He is the true Mercy-seat where God meets and communes in words of Grace with us Eternals were so too all the weights of Glory and Crowns of life in Heaven were purchased by him His blood opens the Holy of Holies the pure River of life springs out of his Merits the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ Rom. 6.28 Had it not been for him we could never have entred into such a blessed Region as Heaven What a Gift is Christ which virtually contains all gifts and good things in him How incomparable that Love which gave us so comprehensive a Gift In the last place let us consider the excellent Evangelical Terms which were founded on the Death of Christ Here two things are considerable The one is this The terms are easier The Covenant of Works was Do this and live The Covenant of Grace is Believe repent and live The first called for pure sinless perfect obedience The last stoops and condescends to fallen man it accepts of sincere though imperfect obedience uprightness passes for perfection the main of the heart for all of it the will is accepted for the work pure aims are taken for compleat performances infirmities are covered with indulgence duties are taken into the hand of a Mediator and perfumed with his infinite Merits and hence they are acceptable and as sweet Odours to God O how low doth infinite Love and Mercy stoop to poor sinners It will save a repenting believing sinner and how can it possibly go lower That God should justifie an impenitent unbelieving sinner is utterly impossible to his Holiness unless he would open a gap to all sin and wickedness and make it capable to have a Crown of happiness at last He could not more condescend than he hath done in the terms of the Gospel there is a Kingdom for the poor in spirit a Comfort for the mourners an acceptance for a willing mind a favourable respect for the least spark of grace which is latent in a desire and but as a little smoke or wiek in the socket as the expression is Matth. 12.20 And what condescending Love is here How could God stoop lower for the Salvation of Men The other is this The terms are surer It 's true Adam had he stood in Righteousness would have had a reward But the difference is this Under the first Covenant it was not certain that Adam though he had sufficient grace should stand but under the second it is as sure as Gods Truth and Faithfulness in the promise can make it that a people shall be gathered up out of the corrupt Mass of mankind that Christ shall have a repenting believing seed and that they shall abide and persevere till they come to the recompence of reward in Heaven St. Austin distinguishes of a double adjutorium gratiae De Corrept Grat. cap. 12. or help of grace Adam had that grace without which he could not have obeyed Gods People have that which causes them to obey The first gave him a posse a power to obey and persevere The second gives us the very velle perficere the very willing and working with perseverance Hereupon he observes that Adams will though sound and without spot did not persevere in an ampler good whilest our will though weak and infected with indwelling Corruption doth persevere in a lesser Adam with all his Holiness fell before an Apple a little titillation of pleasure but the Christian Martyrs have stood it out notwithstanding the reliques of sin in them against racks and torments Under the first Covenant the stock of Grace was in Mans own hand the stress lay upon his Will the principle of Holiness in him was subjected to it to be continued or forfeited But under the second Covenant which was founded at so vast an expence as the Blood of God Mans Will is not made Trustee a second time the stock is not in his own hand Grace is a Victor and subdues the Will unto it self Hence this Covenant cannot as the other did miscarry God was a friend to innocent Adam but in the second Covenant God comes nearer to us in a double Union such as Adam never dreamt of There is an Hypostatical Union the Son of God taking our nature into himself and which is founded thereon a Mystical Union Believers being in a wonderful manner united unto Christ as members unto their head In the first Union of the Divine and Humane Nature in Christ there is one Person In the second Christ and Believers make one Christ 1 Cor. 12.12 Believers are but Christ displayed he lives in them he counts himself incomplete without them By virtue of these two Unions it is that Believers finally persevere Because I live saith Christ ye shall live also John 14.19 Their life is bound up in his as long as Christ the head is alive above the believing Members below shall not fail of quickning grace to maintain spiritual life unto eternal The Holy Spirit is in them a well of water springing up to everlasting life John 4.14 and to secure the abode of the Spirit with them Christ is a Priest after the power of an endless life Heb. 7.16 In the Covenant of Works there was no promise of perseverance but in the Covenant of Grace there are many such promises God shall confirm you unto the end 1 Cor. 1.8 He will put his fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from him Jer. 32.40 The Apostle praying for the Thessalonians that they may be preserved blameless unto the coming of Christ immediately adds Faithful is he that called you who also will do it 1 Thes 5.23 24 evidently God undertakes it and engages his Faithfulness in it To take these Promises conditionally is utterly to evacuate them to make them run thus If we will persevere we shall persevere and so much was true under the old Covenant and without any Promise at all The clear scope of those Promises is That Believers are not left in their own hand but kept in Gods and how sure
an hand that is our Saviour tells us None can pluck them out of my Fathers hand John 10.29 I know some take these words with a limitation None can pluck them away without their own voluntary consent but this limitation makes the words altogether insignificant it is not possible that they should be plucked away without their consent The words therefore with that limitation run thus None can pluck them but in such a way as the same is possible to be done and thus they signifie nothing That which our Saviour makes impossible in the Text becomes in the Gloss as possible as any other thing Here we see the incomparable Love of God to his People there is in Christ an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure they are preserved in Christ and that unto salvation This infinite immense Love of God in Christ can do no less than call for a return What was it not enough for him to give us a World of Creatures Hath he given his Son his only begotten dearly beloved Son for us Hath he given him so far as to be made flesh and made under the Law the command and curse of it Hath he thereby removed all Evils and procured all good things for us Hath he done this for Sinners for Enemies and that out of an eternal design of Grace out of such Love as was an impulse to it self without any attractive on our part to move him thereunto And after all this shall not our hearts take fire and burn within us with Love to him again When his Love was up in Eternity shall not ours appear in time When he loved us worthless meritless Creatures shall not we love him upon the highest and greatest attractives When he gave his Son when the Giver and the Gift were both infinite shall our finite affections be shut up from him or denied unto him Our Love to his is but a little drop a poor inconsiderable nothing and with what face or reason can we withhold it when infinite Love calls for it Hath God himself come down as it were from his altitude and in admirable Grace followed us First into our flesh and then into a Law-subjection and at last into a Curse and Penal Sufferings and all this upon an errand of Peace and Reconciliation to reduce us again to himself and to happiness in him and shall we yet fly away from him and by an horrible indignity turn our backs upon such admirable pursuits of Love and Grace After such a deliverance from Sin and Hell as this May we think our selves our own or turn away our hearts so much as in the glance of a thought from so great a Saviour After such a purchase of Grace and Heaven should we not lye down at his feet in extatical admirations and send up our dearest affections to the great Donor If Creatures if Laws if Ordinances move us not shall we yet be unaffected at the spectacle of a God incarnate obeying bleeding dying for us Sinners and Enemies It 's horrible ingratitude having such a prospect of infinite Love before our eyes Let us do as becomes us give God our heart not a piece or corner of it but all not in some weak languid velleities but in the highest strains and raisures of spirit not in some drops or rivulets but in a full stream and current of affections such as is due to him who is the Original of souls Our desires before vagrant on Earth should now take Wing and fly up to Heaven our Love once in corrupt conjunction with Creatures should now aspire after a pure Union with him who is Love it self Our delights should no longer toy or sport with vanity but spread and sweetly dilate themselves in the Beams of infinite Goodness All the Powers of our Souls should now be gathered in from the World and upon on a full deliberate choice should be placed upon the Center of Perfections The proof of all this must be in a life of Obedience without this it is meer vanity to say that we love him Holy Love goes not alone or without a train of good works following after it the warmth and ardor of it in the heart purifies the life the inward suavity of it facilitates the outward Command and naturalizes us to Obedience as it sets a high rate and estimation upon God himself so upon every jot and tittle of his Law The complacency which we find in him makes us take pleasure in all the pure ways which he hath set before us if we esteem him above Worlds and Creatures we will allow his Will to be above all Wills and subject ours to it Moreover the Love of God moves us to love our Neighbour What hath God gone before us in such admirable steps of Love and shall we not be followers of him as dear children and walk in love as the Apostle speaks Eph. 5.1 2 Can there be an higher or nobler pattern than Love it self Shall he do good in the sphere of Nature and more and higher good in the sphere of Grace and we do none in our little sphere Shall infinite Bowels and Mercies be open and finite ones shut When God hath given so great a Gift as his own Son May we withhold our little Pittances of Charity Would we receive all and give nothing Exact pence from our Brother when Talents are forgiven to our selves Is God come into our flesh and shall we hide our selves from it I mean in the neglect or contempt of the poor Did he take humanity that we should put it off No in so doing we should reproach not our Maker only but our Redeemer too Inhumanity is now double treble to what it was before our Saviour took an humane Nature to read us a Lecture of Love and Goodness in the old Commandment of Love is now a new one urged upon us by a new Motive The incomparable Love of God in his giving his Son for us If we now shut up our Bowels and Mercies from others how dwelleth the Love of God in us What sense can we have of it upon our hearts Charity was the badg of the Primitive Christians The impress of Gods Love upon Mr. Fox was so great that he never denied any that asked for Jesus sake Our Love towards men should be a little picture or resemblance of Gods Love towards us Our Mercies and Compassions should tell the world that we have tasted of that infinite Grace and Mercy which is above Our Charity towards all should bear witness that we have been great receivers from God Our Love towards Enemies should be a thankful acknowledgment that we being such were reconciled to God by the Death of his Son CHAP. VI. Chap. 6 The Power of God manifest in Christ In his Incarnation and Conception In his Miracles These were true in the History True in the Nature of Miracles They were numerous and great They were suited to the Evangelical design Divine Power manifest in converting the
require it than ceremonial and if they knew nothing of an Expiating Messiah they sought no further for the expiation of moral guilt than the blood of bulls and goats Now touching the Sacrifices two things are to be noted The one is this there is somewhat in Christ which answers to the Expiatory Sacrifices The sacrifice was to be perfect and without blemish that it might be accepted the blind or broken or maimed or corrupted thing was not to be offered up to God answerably the human nature of Christ which was the great Sacrifice was without spot or guile it was formed by the Holy Spirit and breathed out nothing but sanctity that it might be a pure offering unto God Had there been any blemish in it it could not have been united to the Person of the Word nor offered up as a sacrifice to God for us The Sacrifice pure in it self was substituted in the room of sinful defective men there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the life of a Beast instead of that of a Man Sutably Christ the meek patient immaculate Lamb of God stood in our room he died for us he gave his life a ransom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instead of many Mat. 20.28 His Person was put in the room of ours and his sufferings too in the room of ours Had he not stood in our stead he could not have been capable either to bear the stroke of penal sufferings or to free us from the same not to bear penal sufferings he being nothing but meer innocency in himself nor to free us from them he being in no conjunction with us The sacrifice being put in the sinners room had sin imputed to it they were to lay their hands upon the head of it Lev. 1.4 a confession of sins was made over the Scape-goat Lev. 16.21 their sins were in a sort transferred upon the sacrifice that it might bear them away Thus it was with Christ he was made sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 The Lord laid on him the iniquities of us all Isa 53.6 Our guilt as it was fundamentum poenae was imputed to him so far as to render his sufferings penal and as an Ancient hath it he was delictorum susceptor non commissor having no guilt of his own he stood under ours in order to a glorious expiation and abolition of it in his death and satisfaction Sin being charged upon the sacrifice there was destructio rei oblatae a destroying of the thing offered so it was with Christ when our sins were laid upon him with the Corn he was bruised with the Wine and Oyl poured out with the Lamb slain and roasted in the fire of Gods wrath and with the Scape-goat driven into the wilderness of desertion crying out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me His sufferings were very many and great for us The sacrifice being slain its blood did expiate sin an atonement was made remission ensued upon it Thus Christ dying on the cross his blood was expiatory our fault was compensated Justice was satisfied wrath was averted and God appeased and reconciled towards us In these things appears a fair analogy between those ancient sacrifices and Christ the grea Sacrifice The other is this There is that in Christ which infinitely transcends all the legal sacrifices In the sacrifice there was only a brute in perfection but in Christ there was an human nature in perfection an human nature which had the Spirit above measure and was as full of grace as the capacity of a creature could hold there was in his humanity such a beauty and unmatchable perfection of grace as far surpassed the united and accumulated excellencies of all the Angels in Heaven The sacrifice stood and suffered in the room of offenders by constraint and compulsion it was bound with cords to the horns of the Altar but Christ stood and suffered in our room by choice and voluntary sponsion his soul was not snatched away but poured out his life was not meerly taken away but laid down he was under no constraint but that of his own compassion he was tied with no cords but those of his own love In the private sacrifice some particular sin was charged upon it in the publick one the sins of the Jewish Nation were charged upon it But upon Christ were laid the sins of a World sins of vast distances as far remote in place as the quarters of the earth and in time as the morning and evening of the world met all together upon him In the sacrifice there was a meer simple death and the blood was but the blood of a brute but Christs death was not a meer simple one but a death with a sting and a curse in it a death with as much wrath in it as was due to the sin of a world nor was his blood the blood of a brute but the blood of a man nay of God himself and what manner of Sacrifice was this how compensative for sin how satisfactory to Justice how aversive of wrath how impetrative of all good In every respect it was infinitely valuable and sufficient The Sacrifice suo modo did expiate sin it took away civil guilt by freeing the offender from that temporal death which in the strict sanction of the Law was due to him It took away ceremonial guilt by freeing him from those legal impurities which excluded him from the publick Worship hence the Apostle saith That the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean did sanctifie to the purifying of the flesh Heb. 9.13 Thus far went the sacrifice but it could go no further the moral guilt was still unremoved Justice was still unsatisfied the wrath to come was still unaverted God as yet was unreconciled there was somewhat done to the flesh nothing to the conscience somewhat in foro soli in the Jewish Judicature nothing in foro poli in the Court of Heaven to give a full satisfaction to Divine Justice Hence the Apostle saith that those sacrifices though often repeated could not make the comers thereunto perfect Hebr. 10.1 The blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin v. 4. Still there was a conscience of sin and a remembrance of it every year v. 2 3. Hence God reprobated all those sacrifices and would have none of them they were not rejected for the hypocrisie of the offerer as they were Isa 1.12 13 nor comparatively as being in the outward work less than mercy Hos 6.6 But they were rejected as not able to do the great work to expiate sin they were to vanish as Clouds before the Sun as Types before the substance But when Christ gave himself an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour Ephes 5.2 there was a penal total expiation of sin not the flesh but the Conscience was purged not ceremonial but Moral guilt was done away Thus the Apostle comparing his Sacrifice with the legal ones saith The blood of Christ who through
and wall him up that he shall not find his paths On the other hand it is certain that God is only a permissor of the anomy or ataxy it is not from him as a cause the creature being defectible in it self and under a law distinct from it self may fail and fall short of the rule but God who hath no other law but his perfection and can no more decline from his rectitude than his being is a meer permissor 2. The entity in a sinful action though coexistent with the anomy is to be distinguished from it besides the anomy there is aliquid naturae somewhat of positive being This I think is clear though an act as it respects the law and is in linea morali may be sinful yet as it is an act and considered in lineâ physicâ it cannot be such for so it is but the meer complement of a natural faculty and that complement cannot in it self be sinful because the God of nature cannot be the author of sin The anomy or sinfulness dwells not alone but in alieno fundo in some natural good Original sinfulness is an inmate in the natural faculties actual sinfulness is an inmate in some action or motion The action is inordinate but it is not the inordination the inordination is a privation but the act is not so the act is a positive thing but the inordination is not so the act is the subject of the inordination therefore it is not the very inordination it self Now there being such a distinction in sinful actions between the entity and the anomy the entity or motion must be from God the first being and mover Arminius himself would have it Vt totus actus rite Providentiae subjiciatur quâ actus efficienti quâ peccatum permittenti Providentiae As to the malice Providence permits but as to the action or motion it operates no particle of being can be produced without it such persons as are by illegitimate generation are doubtless Gods creatures and that because the generating act as it is an act is from God 3. The order is considerable In sinful actions all is not meer ataxy God hath an holy Line in the midst of the disorder In Monsters there are aberrations of particular natures yet Providence is not mistaken In sins which are moral monstrosities the sinning-creature is inordinate yet Providence is not without an order touching the same And here we may take notice of a double order the one looks backwards and that is the Order of Penalty The other looks forward and that is the Order of Conducibility I shall a little touch upon each of these 1. The Order of Penalty is considerable and that under a double notion the one is this A sinful action is poena sibiipsi a punishment to it self Jussisti Domine sic est Aust Cons l. 1. cap. 12. Lib. 2. Dist 37. ut poena sibi sit omnis inordinatus animus An inordinate mind is a punishment to it self Sin saith the subtil Scotus as it is fluent from the will is sin but as it is resident in the will it is punishment Or thus As it fights and wars against the Law it is sin but as it debases and deturpates the soul in its beauty and serenity it is punishment A man cannot sin against God but he wrongs his soul Prov. 8.36 Jerusalem cannot make Idols against God but she doth it against her self too Ezek. 22.3 in respect of this penalty God doth not suffer dedecus peccati esse sine decore justitiae no not for a moment The other is this One sin is a punishment to another precedent In general St. Austin tells us That between the first sin of Apostacy and the last punishment of eternal fire the middle things are sins and punishments Sometimes the sin of one person is a punishment to the precedent sin of another Davids Adultery was punished with Absoloms Incest Solomons Idolatry with Rehoboams Folly Sometimes the subsequent sin of a person is a punishment to his precedent sin The Gentiles were idolatrous and God gave them up to vile affections Rom. 1.26 Men love not the truth and God sends them strong delusions 2 Thess 2.11 In all which instances Peccatum non Dei est sed judicium The sin is man's the judgment God's 2. There is an Order of Conducibility to be observed Enchir. c. 100. God permits not a sin irrationally Non sineret bonus fieri male saith Austin nisi Omnipotens etiam de Malo facere posset bene The Good God would not suffer evil to be done unless he could by his Omnipotency bring good out of it De Causa Dei c. 34. Nullum est malnus in mundo saith Bradwardine quod non est propter aliquod magnum bonum forsitan propter aliquod majus bonum There is no evil in the world which is not for some great good and perhaps for some greater good Adam by his fall broke in pieces a beautiful image of Holiness and the dust of it made a glass of Creature-defectibility The stock of Grace laid up in Adam was lost and an unloseable Treasury is laid up in Christs human nature Joseph's brethren sell him but God sent him into Egypt to preserve life Gen. 45.5 Persecutors scatter the Church and by this means God scatters the Gospel Acts 8.4 Thus he orders the very sins of men to excellent purposes There being as hath been said such a double Order it is most apparent that both these Orders are from his Providence who is the God of order The Order of Penalty is from him who is Justice it self The Order of Conducibility is from him who is Wisdom it self Providence is either justly punishing or wisely disposing of things The sins of men are evil in themselves but the Order hath a goodness and beauty in it These things being laid down in general I come now to answer this Objection in that instance which is above all other The Sufferings of our Saviour The blackest iniquity that ever the Sun saw was the crucifying of him who was God manifested in the flesh and yet here Providence did not stand off or at a distance but ordered his sufferings to bring forth the great work of Redemption On mans part there was malice blood and unparallel'd wickedness yet on Gods there was justice righteousness and a design of incomparable love to save the world Hence it is said That Herod and Pilate and the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together to do whatsoever Gods hand and Gods counsel determined before to be done Acts 4.27 28. Never was there so horrible a sin never so signal a Providence as here Some Divines do here distinguish thus The passion of Christ was decreed but the crucifiers action was not Others will not admit this distinction Beza against Castellio says That common sense is against it Chamier thinks that natural light is against it I confess that I cannot satisfie my self with it Are the
talents not in Mat. 13 for there it is accommodated to the Parable of the seed and given as an item to such as heard the Gospel nor yet in the 25th chap. for there the use of the talents is remunerated with eternal life ver 21 23 which is a Crown too rich to be set upon meer naturals There the talents upon abuse are taken away and by consequence if it were meant of naturals the abusers must lose their reason and become fools which experience denies But whatever the talents are in that promise it must be interpreted in eodem genere If of talents of Nature it runs thus He that useth naturals shall have more of them If of talents of Grace thus He that useth Supernaturals shall have more of them But to stretch this promise a genere ad genus from naturals to supernaturals as if Nature might per saltum be crowned with Grace is an interpretation very incongruous and directly contrary to that of the Apostle He hath called us not according to our works but according to his own grace The end of this promise is to excite men to the good use of talents But after such an unreasonable stretch of it as makes Grace the reward of Nature What can come of it Where shall the fruit of it be Not in the Church there they have the Gospel-grace already nor yet out of it there it is not revealed neither is it possible that those who want the Gospel should be stirred up by any promise in it to seek after it in the use of naturals Thus we see that the external call is not a debt to Nature but a meer gift of Grace Such as the great Gift is such is the Charter The great gift of Christ was purely totally gratuitous therefore the Charter of the Gospel which in the manifestation of it is the external Call is so also 2. The Internal call is of Grace And here because some oppose this call I shall first shew That there is such a call and then that it is meerly of Grace 1. There is such a thing as an internal call Pelagius at least in the first draught of his Heresy placed Grace only in libero arbitrio doctrina in Free-will and Doctrine Free-will being Nature not Grace Doctrine being Grace but not the all of it he left no room at all for an Internal call he allowed no Grace but that external one of Doctrine and in this he spake very consonantly to his other opinions denying Original sin as he did What need could there be of internal Grace There being no spot or sinful defect in the Soul Grace hath nothing to do within all is well and whole there and needs no Physitian all is in order and harmony there and nothing to be new-made or new-framed Therefore St. Austin observes that though Pelagius would sometimes talk of a multiform and ineffable Grace yet it was but to put a blind and cover over his heresy Quid juvat Pelagium quia diversis verbis eandem rem dicit ut non intelligatur in lege atque doctrina gratiam constituere de Grat. Christi cap. 9. De. serv pars 4. c. 12. Dial. de just fo 13. Still he meant no more than meer Doctrine and external Grace denying Original sin there was nothing within for Grace to do or rectify Socinus who with the Pelagians denies Original sin makes little or no account of internal Grace though in his Praelections he speak of an interius anxilium an inward aid yet he saith That Faith is generated potissimum per externa chiefly by externals and again That Faith is rather to be called Gods command than his gift But that there is such a thing as an Internal call and that distinct from the external I shall propose three or four things 1. All in the Church have an external call but some are not so much as illuminated it is not given to them to know the heavenly mysteries Those by the way-side heard the word and understood it not Christ was a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks and both because he was not though outwardly proposed inwardly understood Christ the power of God if understood could not have been a stumbling block to the Jews who looked after signs Christ the Wisdom of God if understood could not have been foolishness to the Greeks who sought after Wisdom Mr. Pemble relates this Story An Old Man of above 60 years of Age a constant hearer of the Word was after all so grosly ignorant as upon Discourse to say that God was a good old Man Christ a towardly youth the Soul a great bone in the body and the happiness of man after death was to be put into a pleasant green Meadow Such poor blind Souls have indeed an external call but not so much as the first element of the internal one Illumination which is the initial thing therein is wanting in them 2. All in the Church have an external call but some are for their iniquity judicially hardned under the means the Word of Life is to them the savour of death Christ the Corner-stone a stumbling-block the light blinds them the melting ordinances harden them These men have an external call but nothing of an internal one it being impossible that the same persons under the same means should be illuminated and softened which are the effects of an internal call and at the same time should be blinded and hardened under the means which cannot but have in them an external one 3. Some under the Gospel have a wonderful work wrought in them their eyes are opened upon the Evangelical Mysteries their wills are melted into the Divine Will Gods Law is engraven in their heart his image is the beauty and glory of their souls A great work is done in them a new-creation appears within and how should this be or which way should it be effected but by that internal call which calls things that are not as though they were which in a glorious way calls Faith and other Graces into being Hence the Apostle saith That the Gospel came to the Thessalonians not in word only but in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance 1 Thes 1.5 Here 's the true internal call the word did not only outwardly sound to them no it was inwardly engrafted to the saving of the soul it was strongly and sweetly set home upon the heart so as to produce Faith and Love It was not in meer notions but it sprung up into a new-creature This is the internal call If a meer external one might have done it Pelagius in the rudest draught of his Heresie had been in the right He placed Grace in meer Doctrine and Free-will but to the framing of the new-creature an internal operation is requisite Hence St. Austin saith De Praedest l. 1. cap. 8. That believers have not only as others an outward Preacher but an inward one Intùs à patre
audiunt they hear and learn of the Father He speaks to them inwardly in such words of life and power as produces the new-creature 4. The Ministry of Christ was a very excellent one He spake did lived as never man did there were Oracles in his mouth Miracles in his hands Sanctity in his life Never was there such an external call as here yet would this do the work Would this secure a Church or people to God No He tells them plainly That except they were born of the Spirit they could not enter Heaven That no man can come to him except the Father draw him There must be an internal traction or else there would be never a believer in the world Trahitur miris modis ut velit ab illo Aust ad Bon. lib. 1. cap. 19. qui novit intus in ipsis hominum cordibus operari In this Traction there is a secret and admirable touch upon the heart to make it believe and receive Christ This is an internal call indeed Yet as pregnant as the words are the Socinians have an art to turn Gods Traction into Mans Disposition and the Divine energy into human probity Vis praecipua in audientium probitate consistebat the chief force consists in the probity of the auditors Prael Theol. cap. 12. Thus Socinus touching that Traction Those who have probity of mind who will do Gods Will those honest Souls will embrace the Gospel When God is said to touch the heart 1 Sam. 10.26 the meaning is they had tangible hearts such as were inclinable to the Divine Will De Vera Rel. l. 4. cap. 1. so Volkelius And again when God draws men he proposes his Will and the probi the honest hearts are perswaded De Ver. Rel. lib. 5. cap. 18. so the same Author Thus by an odd perverse interpretation of Scripture the choicest operations of Grace are at last resolved into nature and freewill This more plainly appears by that explication which Volkelius in the place first quoted gives us of probity There are saith he in Man three things Reason Will and Appetite if the Will the middle faculty apply it self to Reason there is probity if to the Appetite there is improbity We see here what probity is the meer product of the Will Faith is resolved into probity and probity into the Will of man There is no need of Grace at least not of an internal one The probity requisite to Faith is according to these men much the same as Aristotle requires from the auditors of morality that is that they act 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to Reason Eth. l. 1. c. 3. Thus according to them there is nothing of Mystery or Grace in this Traction but only a following the common principles of nature out of this temper Faith will spring up But do these men believe Scripture There the natural unregenerate man is thus described He is dead in sin A corrupt tree which cannot bring forth good fruit He perceives not spiritual things His carnal mind is not subject to the Law nor indeed can be Without grace he cannot do good no nor so much as spend a thought about it He is a stranger from the life of God and blindness is upon his heart and can there be any true probity in such an one The Corinthians at least some of them were before their conversion Fornicators Idolaters Adulterers Effeminate Abusers of themselves with Mankind Thieves Covetous Drunkards Revilers Extortioners 1 Cor. 6.9 and 10. And what probity was in them True probity such as is towards God is no other than sincerity and sincerity is not one Grace but the rectitude of all And may such a thing go before Faith Where true probity is there is a pure intention to do Gods Will and may it antecede that Faith which is the single eye and works by love Probity is not an off-spring of nature but of Grace could Free-will elevate it self to it there would need no traction no influence of Grace at all * Qui humilitati obedientiae humanae subjungunt gratiae adjutorium nec ut obedientes humiles simus ipsius gratiae donum esse consentiunt resistunt Apostolo diceenti quid habes quod non accepisti Gratiâ Dei sum quod sum Conc. Araus 2. can 6. The Fathers in the Arausican Council condemn those who subordinate Grace to mans humility or obedience as if humility and obedience were not gifts of Grace To conclude the Fathers Traction doth not stand in mans probity but in a Divine energy such as produces faith in the heart 2. The internal call is meerly of Grace The Spirit breathes where it lists God calls as he pleases some are called according to purpose all are not so Every heart under the Evangelical means is not opened as Lydia's was God works in us to will and to do of his good pleasure If God be God an infinite Mind he must needs be free if free in any thing he must be so in acts of Grace in his calling men home unto himself It is true that according to some the Spirit is annexed to the Gospel and works equally on all the Auditors But this opinion labours under prodigious consequences I mean some such as these following are The Holy Spirit whose prerogative it is to breathe where he list and divide to every one as he will is here affixed to his own organ the Gospel and must part out his Grace equally to all The Ordinance of Preaching as if it were no longer a meer Ordinance or pendant on the Spirit must confer Grace if not ex opere operato yet in a certain promiscuous way to all The Minister who uses to look up for the spirit and excellency of power to succeed his labours may rest secure all is ready and at hand The peoples eyes which ought to wait on the Lord if peradventure he will give faith and repentance to them will soon fall down and center on the Ordinance where they are sure without a peradventure to have their share of Grace Those emphatical Scriptures which speak of singular Grace to some must now run in a much lower strain The opening of Lydia's heart how remarkable soever must be no singular Grace but common to the rest The tractions and inward teachings of the Father which make some to come to Christ must be general favours and extendible to those who come not to him When the Apostle saith That Christ is to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness but to them that are called the power and wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1. 23 24 How signal soever the difference in the Text be the internal call must be all one in those to whom Christ was a stumbling-block and foolishness as in those to whom he was the power and wisdom of God The called according to purpose are called but as other men Gods purpose is to call all a-like mans only makes the difference These are
he ought the greatest Saint though a man full of divine principles stands in need of assistance And doth a natural man one void of good fraught with evil need no more Is regenerating quickning renewing new-creating grace nothing but an assistance only May any one believe that the holy Spirit in Scripture should give such high stately titles to an assistance only May a man be a co-operator or co-partner with God in the raising up faith and a new creature in himself It 's true a natural man may by a common grace enter upon preparatories he may attend upon the means but what can he contribute to the work it self he is meerly natural the new creature is totally supernatural and what can he do towards it could he contribute ought what would the new creature be must it not be part natural as from man part supernatural as from God part old as from nature part new as from grace Thus it must be if this great work be divided between God and man Notable is that of Lactantius De fal Rel. Lib. 1. Cap. 11. Jovem Junonemque a juvando esse dictos Cicero interpretatur Jupiter quasi Juvans Pater dictus quod nomen in Deum minimè congruit quia juvare hominis est opis aliquid conferentis in eum qui sit egens alicujus beneficii nemo sic Deum precatur ut se adjuvet sed ut servet ut vitam salutemque tribuat nullns pater dicitur filios juvare cum eos generat aut educat illud enim levius est quam ut eo verbo magnitudo paterni beneficii exprimatur quanto id magis est inconveniens Deo qui verus est Pater per quem sumits cujus toti sumus a quo fingimier animamur illuminamur And at last he concludes Non intelligit beneficia divina qui se juvari modo a Deo putat He understands not divine benefits who thinks himself only helped by God Jehovah must not be transformed into a Jupiter or a meer helper man must not share with him in this great work it is God who makes us new creatures and not we our selves We are his workmanship not our own Ephes 2.10 Born not of the will of man but of God Joh. 1.13 As soon as a man is regenerate it may be truly said of him Hic homo jam naâ—ns est ex Deo this man is now born of God but to say that he is in part born of mans will is to blaspheme the Author of our spiritual being and to crown Nature instead of Grace 3. The holy principles of Grace are produced by an act of Divine power God lays the foundations of faith and the new creature as it were in mighty waters in the very same heart in which there is a fountain and torrent of corruption and no power less than the Divine can put back the stream of nature and set up the Heavenly structure of Grace in such an heart The production of gracious principles is in Scripture set forth in glorious titles such as do import power 't is called a Transtation Col. 1.13 it transplants and carries us away out of a state of sin into a state of grace 'T is a Generation Jam. 1.18 it begets us to a participation of the Divine Nature 'T is a Resurrection Ephes 2.5 It quickens us and inspires into us a Supernatural life of which the fall had left no spark or relick at all 'T is a Creation Eph. 2.10 it raises up a new creature out of nothing and gives us a spiritual being which before we had not and if these things do not speak power nothing can Hence the Apostle speaks of the Gospel coming in power 1 Thes 1.5 Nay that in the success of it there is an excellency of power 2 Cor. 4.7 and an exceeding greatness of power towards Believers Eph. 1.19 The work of faith is said to be fulfilled with power 2 Thes 1.11 How much more must it be an act of power to lay the Primordials and first principles of faith in a fallen unbelieving creature When there was nothing appearing in our lapsed nature but a vacuum a chaos of sin a spiritual death and nullity only the Divine power was able to repair the ruins of the fall and rear up the Heavenly life and nature in us This great truth was notably set forth in the conception of our Saviour Christ it was not in the course of nature his Mother knew not a man but the Holy Ghost came upon her the power of the highest overshadowed her that the holy thing might be born of her Luk. 1.35 In like manner when Christ is formed in the heart when the new-creature is set up in us it is not in the way of nature we know not the humane power in this work here is no less than dextra excelsi the right hand of the most High to effect it here are vestigia spiritus sancti the footsteps of the holy Spirit to bring it to pass the same power and spirit which formed Christ in the womb formes him in the heart as in his participation of the humane nature there was a Supernatural operation so is there in our participation of the Divine This is the first efficacy of Grace it new creates the heart and imprints the Divine image there it inspires holy Principles and so lays a foundation for obedience 2. There is an efficacy of Grace as to actual believing and willing St. Bernard asks the question Quid agit liberum arbitrium What doth Free-will do and then answers De Lib. Arbit Grat. Salvatur it is saved And Agatho in his Epistle lays down this as a rule Quod a Christo non susceptum est 6. Gen. Conc. Act. 4. nec salvatum est si ab eo humana voluntas suscepta est salvata est That which was not assumed by Christ is not saved by him If an humane will was assumed then it is saved and it is saved first in that principles of holy rectitude are instilled into it and then in that those principles are drawn forth in actual willing both these are necessary the first implants the vital principles of Grace in the heart the second makes them blossom and bring forth precious fruit without those vital principles the will however assisted ab extra is internally in it self but a faculty meerly natural and void of spiritual life it hath no proportion to the vital supernatural acts of Faith and Love Neither is it possible that any such should issue out from thence no not by any extrinsecal assistance whatsoever an act if vital and supernatural must be from an internal principle that is such Again unless those vital principles bring forth actual believing and willing they must needs lie dead and come to nothing And yet if we estimate things according to their worth and excellency we cannot but think it much more easie and eligible for the wise and good God to suffer an
Imputatio non nititur fictitiâ aliquâ suppositione sed verâ participatione rei imputatae Imputation doth not stand upon any fictitious supposition but upon a true participation of the thing imputed These things being thus laid down I shall come directly to the point my Opinion is That the Righteousness of Christ is not meerly the meritorious cause of Justification but somwhat more neither is it meerly imputed to us in the Effects but it self as a satisfaction is so far imputed to us as to be the material cause of Justification as to the Law I think nothing can be more proper to justifie us as the Law than that which satisfied it I cannot tell how to suppose that one thing should satisfie the Law and another justifie against it And here I shall first lay down my Reasons and then answer the Objections made against my Opinion For Reasons I shall offer several things First I shall begin with that memorable phrase The Righteousness of God which cannot but be of great moment in this point some take it for the mercy of God and so it is sometimes taken in the Old Testament The Mercy of the Lord is upon them that fear him and his Righteousness unto Childrens Children Psal 103.17 where Mercy and Righteousness are one and the same but in the New Testament where this phrase often occurs it is never so taken the Righteousness of God is revealed in the Gospel Rom. 1.17 Revealed that which before was only obscurely hinted was in the Gospel clearly opened but the Mercy of God was not only darkly hinted but openly proclaimed in very high and stately terms in the Old Testament An Instance we have of it Exod. 34.6 and 7. where the Titles of Mercy carry as much of Glory and Magnificence as any thing can do We are said to be made the Righteousness of God 2 Cor. 5.21 but never to be made his Mercy neither would be at all proper to say so Others take it for our Inherent Graces which are our Evangelical Righteousness but these though they come down from Heaven are never called the Righteousness nay on the contrary they are called our own as being inherent in us Hence we find Your Faith Rom. 1.8 your Love 2 Cor. 8.8 your Patience Luke 21.19 your Hope 1 Pet. 1.21 your Righteousness Matth. 5.20 that which in Scripture is called the Righteousness of God is not the same with that which is called our own there were our Inherent Graces imported in that phrase Faith which is a prime excellent Grace must have its share therein but the Righteousness of God is by Faith Rom. 3.22 Therefore it is not Faith the Righteousness of God is upon the Believer therefore it is not in him Others take it for Pardon but neither can this Interpretation stand The Jews were ignorant of God's Righteousness Rom. 10.3 but surely they were not ignorant that God was a God pardoning iniquity that Pardon which in the Old Testament is elegantly decyphered by Covering Blotting out Remembring no more Casting away sin is not in the New vailed in an Expreslion so obscure and improper for it as that of the Righteousness of God seems to be to that intent leaving these I take it that the Righteousness of God imports that of Christ and in this sence the phrase is as Glorious and Illustrious as it would be obscure and improper to denote Pardon The Righteousness of Christ is indeed the Righteousness of God it is the Righteousness of him who is God of him whose Blood is called the Blood of God it is a pure perfect Righteousness which can consist before the Tribunal of God which was by God ordained to make us Righteous This is it which being before but darkly hinted was in the Gospel manifestly revealed this is that which is upon the Believer as a rich Covering to hide his imperfections this is it which the Jews were ignorant of and submitted not unto the Apostle tells us That they submitted not to the Righteousness of God Rom. 10.3 and what that Righteousness is the next Verse expresses for Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believeth the Law hath its end in nothing but in his Righteousness which satisfied it But besides there is one place which in terminis calls the Righteousness of God the Righteousness of Christ to them who have obtained like precious Faith with us through the Righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 1.1 Observe it is not through the Righteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of God and of our Saviour Jesus Christ as noting two Persons but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of God and our Saviour as betokening one as Bishop Downham hath observed like that Tit. 2.13 The glorious Appearance of the great God and our Saviour where one Person is intended Thus far it appears that the Righteousness of God denotes the Righteousness of Christ That which remains is to enquire Whether the Righteousness of God never import any more than a meer meritorious cause 'T is true in that place 2 Pet. 1.1 it imports no more but in others it speaks further We are made the Righteousness of God 2 Cor. 5.21 The Righteousness of God is upon us Rom. 3.22 and as a paraphrase upon the Righteousness of God the Apostle tells us that Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness to the Believer Rom. 10.4 Here I take it the Righteousness of Christ is set forth not only as a meritorious antecedent cause of Justification but as an Ingredient a material cause in it he that hath only the effect cannot be said to be made the Impetrating cause no more can we be said to be made the Righteousness of Christ if we only have the fruit of it not the thing it self That Righteousness as a meritorious cause may be said to be for us but not to be upon us unless by Imputation it be made ours Christ in respect of Merit only is no more for Righteousness which yet is the Emphasis of the Text than for sanctifying Graces these being as much merited as the other Christ is so far Righteousness as he is the end of the Law and that he is in the satisfaction it self not in Remission which is the effect of it the Satisfaction it self therefore is made ours in Justification It seems to me a great departure from the Text to say Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness that is for Pardon which is the Effect or for Impunity which is the Effect of the Effect Secondly It is utterly impossible that there should be a Justification without a Righteousness Constitutive Justification makes us Righteous Estimative or sentential Justification esteems or pronounces us such a Justification cannot be without a Righteousness nor can any thing be a Righteousness unless it answer the Law What then is our Righteousness as to the Law Faith answers the Gospel terms But what answers the Law Surely nothing under Heaven
thing of vast import and consequence therefore he would do it with the greatest strength of intention and affection David like he calls upon his Soul and all that is within him to intend the thing in hand but because when he hath done his utmost there will yet be many failures and infirmities the holy Man looks up to Mercy for a Pardon and offers up all his Duties in and through Jesus Christ the great Mediator In the Old Testament the holy Man prayed thus Remember O my God and spare me Neh. 13.22 Enter not into judgment with thy Servant Psal 143.2 If thou Lord shouldest mark iniquities who shall stand Psal 130.3 The sense of their many imperfections made them fly to a Mercy-seat In the New Testament we are expresly directed To do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus Col. 3.17 To make our approaches to God in and through him Eph. 2.18 To offer up spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God by him 1 Pet. 2.5 Every Duty must be tendred unto God in and through the Mediator therefore the holy Man doth not stand upon the Perfection of his Services but implore a Pardon of his Infirmities neither doth he tender his Services immediately unto God but he puts them into the hand of Christ that being perfumed and as it were glorified by his merits they might from thence ascend up before God and be graciously accepted by him Moreover because Ordinances are but Medium's and Chanels of Grace the Holy Man in the use of them lifts up his Eyes to God to have them filled with the Divine Spirit and Blessing a meer outward Sanctuary of Ordinances will not serve his turn he would see the Power and the Glory the goings of God in it He cannot live by Bread only not the Life of Nature by the Bread of Creatures only not the Life of Grace by the Bread of Ordinances only in both he waits for that word of Blessing which proceeds out of God's Mouth this is that which makes the Ordinance communicate Grace and Comfort to us When the Word is preached it is not enough to the holy Man to have the Sacred Truths outwardly proposed or to hear the voice of a Man teaching the same but his Heart and his Flesh cry out for the Living God Oh! that God would speak inwardly in words of Life and Power that deep and Divine impressions might be made upon the Heart to sanctify it by the Truth and to cast it more and more into the mould of the Divine Will Oh! that God would come and shine into the Heart that he would uncover the holy things and bring forth Evangelical Mysteries to the view that the Heart might be ravished in the sweet odours of Christ that the Promises might flow out as a Conduit of Celestial Wine and make the Soul taste some drops of the pure Rivers of pleasure which are above This is the desire and expectation of the holy Man in hearing in like manner in Prayer it is not enough to him to pour out words before God but he looks for the holy Spirit to help his Infirmities and breath upon his Devotions that as Christ pleads above by his Merits and Sweet-smelling Sacrifice so the Holy Spirit may plead in the Heart with sighs and groans that cannot be uttered being conscious to himself what a thing his Heart is how much coldness hardness straitness is yet remaining there he waits for the Spirit to be as fire from Heaven to inflame the Heart and make it ascend up unto God to melt it and make it open and expand towards Heaven to set it a running in Spiritual fluency and enlargements towards God The holy Man esteems all to be lost and to no purpose unless he can have some converse and communion with God in every ordinance his Heart and the Ordinance have both the same scope and tendency that there may be a Divine intercourse between God and him God draws and he runs Cant. 1.4 God saith Seek ye my Face And the Soul answers Thy Face Lord will I seek Psal 27.8 There are Divine Influences and Spirations on God's part and there are compliances and responses in the holy Heart in Prayer it burns and aspires after him who set it a fire by the communications of his Grace and Love in Praise it carries back the received Blessings and lays them down at the feet of the great Donor in the hearing of the Word it hath something or other to answer to every part it trembles at the threatning it leaps up and in triumphs of Faith embraces the Promise it complies with the pure Command in holy Love and Obedience without this Communion in which God and Man spiritually meet together the holy Man looks on Ordinances but as dry empty things void of Life and separate from their chief end but if the holy Spirit breath upon the Heart and that breath out it self to God if the Soul set it self to seek God's Face and that irradiate the Duty then the Ordinance is full of Life and reaches its end The holy Man then perceives that God is in it of a truth hence one as Bellarmine relates used to rise from Duty with these words Claudimini oculi mei claudimini nihil enim pulchrius jà m videbitis Be shut O my Eyes be shut for I shall never behold a fairer object than God's Face which I have now beheld Take him in Alms and Charity he is holy there he knows that he was born nay and by a Divine Generation born again that he might do good It was a notable Speech of the Philosoper The Beasts Plants Sun Stars were designed for some work or other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and what are you for When he thinks that he is a Man a rational Creature and which is more a new Creature and by Adoption one of the Seed Royal of Heaven he sees a necessity laid upon him to be fruitful in Charity and Good Works If he who hath a first and a second Birth who hath the good things of Nature and Grace do not do good who shall do it or where may it be expected The holy Man therefore sets himself to do good he doth not only do the outward work of Charity but he doth it readily and freely when an object of Charity meets him he doth not say Go and come again when he himself goes to the Mercy-seat he would not have God delay or turn him off after that manner Neither will he do so to his poor Brother not only the command of God but the taste that he hath of the Divine Grace make him ready and free in good Works his Good Works have not only a Body but there is a free Spirit in them and as the thing given supplies the Receiver's want so the manner of giving revives his Spirit The holy Man doth not only give Alms but he doth it out of Love and Compassion Beneficentiâ ex Benevolentiâ manare debet he doth good out of
from God the chief Good and Ultimate End if we consecrate our selves to God we must needs cast away sin from us the Spirit and Flesh are contrary Principles and cannot rule together the Works of the one and of the other cannot be compounded the great Centers Heaven and Hell are at a vast distance and cannot meet We must therefore die to Sin or else we cannot live to God let us labour to be Holy in all manner of Conversation let us go forth and meet God in every dispensation in Ordinances let us meet him with Devotion and holy Affection in Alms with Love and a free Spirit in Prosperity with Praises and Good Works in Adversity with Patience and Silence in our Dealings with Justice and Righteousness in our Callings with Faithfulness and Diligence In every thing let us walk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worthy of God as becomes those who are consecrated unto him Let us so exercise our selves unto Piety that we may grow in all Graces that our Faith may be more lively our Love more ardent our Humility more low our Heavenliness more high our Obedience more full our Patience more perfect that we may have our fruit unto Holiness and the End Everlasting Life Let us be ever making our selves ready for that Blessed Region where there are plenitudes of Joy Crowns of Immortality Rivers of Pleasures where God is the Light Life Love All in all to the Saints FINIS ERRATA'S PAge 57. Line 10. read burned p. 72. l. 27. formally p. 75. l. 4. Vajored p. 90. l. 19. ears p. 138. l. 14. Sun p. 141. l. 6. Vos p. 148. l. 14. plenal p. 150. l. 17. Carnal Ordinances p. 167. l. 6. often cast p. 203. l. 10. heart p. 247. l. 7. possibly p. 327. l. 20. none for the Promise Ib. l. 21. capable of p. 330. l. 2. true p. 339. l. 3. Righteousness of God p. 343. l. 1. is it a Jus Impunitatis p. 355. in the marg Note r. consecratum est p. 366. l. 4. its subject p. 371. l. 12. the Glory of it it is ours p. 420. l. 10. expression p. 428. l. 2. ray Reader the misplaced Points or Stops do sometimes very much alter or obscure the Sence let such places be read without any respect to them and then the Sence will appear Books sold by Thomas Cockerill at the Three Legs in the Poultry over against the Stocks-Market Books publish'd by the same Author PRecious Faith considered in its Nature Working and Growth in 80. The Divine Will considered in its Eternal Decrees and holy Execution of them in 80. An Answer to a Discourse of Mr. William Sherlock touching the Knowledg of Christ and our Union and Communion with him in 80. Morning Exercise at Cripple-Gate or several Cases of Conscience practically resolved by sundry Ministers in 40. A Supplement to the Morning Exercise at Cripple-Gate Or several more Cases of Conscience practically resolved by sundry Ministers in 40. The Court of the Gentiles in 4 Parts by Theophilus Gale in 40. Pseudodoxia Epidemica Or Enquiries into very many Received Tenets and commonly presumed Truths Together with the Religio Medici by Tho. Brown Knight M. D. 40. A Discourse of Patronage Being a modest Enquiry into the Original of it and a further prosecution of the History of it by Zachariah Cowdry in 40. The Poor Man's Family-Book by Rich. Baxter in 80. The Faithfulness of God considered and cleared in the great Events of his Works or a Second Part of the fulfilling of the Scriptures by the same Author in 80. The English School or The readiest way for teaching Children or Elder Persons to spell and read rightly pronounce and write true English containing also a Catalogue of all the words in the Bible c. by Tobias Ellys in 80. A New Book of Spelling with Syllables or an Alphabet and plain Path-way to the Faculty of Reading the English Roman Italian and Secretary Hands with several Copies of the same divised chiefly for Children that thereby with the less loss of their time they may be able to pass from Reading to the Latin Tongue Also this Book is very necessary for the Ignorant to teach them to write true Orthography in short time A Week of Soliloquies and Prayers with a Preparation to the holy Communion and other Devotions added to this Edition in two Parts by Peter Du Moulin D. D. in 12. De Causa Dei Or A Vindication of the common Doctrine of the Protestant Divines concerning Predetermination i. e. The Interest of God as the first Cause in all Actions as such of all Rational Creatures from the invidious consequence with which it is burden'd by Mr. John Howe in a late Letter and Postscript of God's Prescience in 80. A Dialogue between a Popish Priest and an English Protestant wherein the principal Points and Arguments of both Religions are truly proposed and fully examined by Matthew Poole Author of the Synopsis Criticorum in 12. The Spiritual Remembrancer Or A Brief Discourse of the Duty of those who attend upon the preaching of the Gospel by Samuel Welley in 80. God a Christian's Choice compleated by particular Covenanting with God wherein the Lawfulness and Expediency is cleared by Samuel Winney in 12. The Reüniting of Christianity Or The manner how to rejoyn all Christians under one sole Confession of Faith in 80.
Speculum Theologiae in Christo OR A VIEW OF SOME Divine Truths Which are either Practically Exemplified IN JESUS CHRIST Set forth in the GOSPEL Or may be reasonably deduced from thence By EDWARD POLHILL of Burwash in Sussex Esq LONDON Printed by A. M. and R. R. for Tho. Cockerill at the Three Legs in the Poultrey over-against the Stocks-Market MDCLXXVIII TO THE CHRISTIAN READER IT was anciently observed by St. Austin touching the Prophets under the Old Testament Non tantum lingua illorum hominum verum etiam vita fuit Prophetica They did not only prophesie or reveal the mind of God by words but by things done by or upon them Isaiah must walk naked and barefoot to shew the shame of the Egyptian captivity Jeremy must go down to the Potters House and there see the Vessel marred to give the Jews a pregnant demonstration that God could unmake and destroy them Ezekiel was to remove and bring forth his stuff to give them a lively representation of their captivity Above all this was eminently seen in our great Prophet Jesus Christ He did not only reveal the Gospel but he himself is the substance and marrow of it He is the very mirror of Divine Truths and Perfections His stile is the Image of the invisible God the brightness of the Fathers Glory As an eternal Son he is such in himself As incarnate he is such to us The Messiah say the Rabbins is facies Dei the face of God The Glory of God faith the Apostle is in the face of Jesus Christ The Divine perfections appear in him as beauty doth in the face The invisible one may here be seen the inaccessible Majesty may be approach'd unto Infinity to accommodate it self to our Model appears nube carnis in a Cloud of flesh that his glory might not swallow us up In our Emanuel we have a body of Theology an excellent Summary of Divine Truths in a very lively manner set forth to us The Atheist who owns not a God in Heaven might here if he had eyes of Faith see God in the flesh The Wisdom of God doth here appear not in the orders and harmonies of nature but in a plot much greater and more admirable God and Man infinite and finite Eternal and Temporal are met in conjunction that the human finite temporal nature in Christ might be the Theater for the Divine Infinite Eternal nature to shew its perfections in The Truth of God manifests it self illustriously in that no difficulty could hinder the early promise of the Messiah made immediately after the fall of man neither could any time bury it in oblivion He would be true in that which was the hardest thing for him to do in parting with his only begotten out of his bosom for us After many ages the Promise must bud and blossom and bring forth the Messiah We see here That God is the holy one his hatred of sin is writ in Red Characters in the blood and wounds of our dear Lord. His love to holiness was such that he would send his own Son in the flesh to recover holiness into the heart of man again We have here Providence accurately watching over our Saviour all-along first over his Genealogy then over his birth life death resurrection And lastly over the issue of all a Church raised up to sing Hosannah's to him for ever Omnia plena Sacramentorum saith an Ancient Every thing in Christ reads us a Lecture of Divinity He being the second Adam who brought in righteousness and life unto men we are sure that there was a first who brought in sin and death to them From his conception being an extraordinary one we may plainly gather what the Two states of Nature and Grace are By the common generation we are flesh of flesh unclean creatures By the power of the regenerating spirit overshadowing our hearts we become spirit of spirit holy new-creatures In his life and preaching we have miracles triumphing over nature and all the order of it Mysteries exceeding Reason and all its Acumen and a Samplar of humility Meekness Mercy Righteousness Holiness Obedience such as the Sun never saw In his death we have what the proud Socinian thinks impossible Infinite Mercy and Infinite Justice kissing and embracing each other Mercy was seen that God should give his only his dearly beloved Son for us Justice was seen that God should exact of him standing in our stead as much as would counterpoize the sin and suffering of a World in his glorious satisfaction We see what that is which justifies sinners and makes them stand before the Holy God In his excellent example we see how justified ones which are mystical parts and pieces of him ought to walk and tread in his steps These things are the subject matter of the ensuing Discourse may all who are called Christians study Jesus Christ The little 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Reason of Man is much cried up in this Age may we much more adore the Infinite Word and Wisdom of God The temper of St. Bernard may be recommended to all Si scribas non sapit mihi nisi legero ibi Jesum si disputes aut conferas non sapit mihi nisi sonuerit ibi Jesus The devout Father could not relish any thing but Jesus Christ may our hearts ever burn and be inflamed with love to him in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledg may we desire none but Christ Non aliud praeter illum non aliud tanquam illum non aliud post illum Nothing besides him nothing like him nothing after him This is the scope of my Book if it profit or do good to any it is enough and as much as is desired by him who is A Lover of Truth Edw. Polhill Jan. 21. 1677. THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. A short View of Gods Allsufficiency and condescension in revealing himself p. 1 2. The various ways of manifestation In the making of the World and Man p. 3 4 5 6. After the fall in the Moral Law and in types and shadows p. 7. Lastly and above all in and by Jesus Christ p. 8. CHAP. II. Christ considered as a Prophet and a Speculum p. 9. The Divine Attributes shine in him particularly Wisdom p. 10. The obstacles of Redemption to be removed p. 11 12. The Son of God fit for the work p. 13. Many admirable conjunctions of God and Man of Justice and Mercy of Punishment and Obedience in Christs sufferings p. 14 15. Of Satisfaction and a kind of execution of the Law p. 16. Of Satisfaction and Merit p. 17. Of Merit and Example p. 18. All tending to our salvation ibid. The rare conquest of Sin Satan the World Death p. 19 20 21. Humility of mind necessary p. 21. The desperate issue of the pride of Human Reason p. 21 22. Need of Humility from the threefold state of Reason in Integrity after the Fall after Faith p. 23 24 25. CHAP. III. Holiness the glory of the Deity
p. 26. By it God acts like himself and doth all for his own glory p. 27. It imports an hatred of sin and love of holiness in man p. 27 28. In all these respects it was manifest in Christ p. 28 29 c. It was not indecent for God to come in the flesh and dye p. 29 30. The glory of God breaks forth therein p. 31 32. His hatred of sin and design to extirpate it p. 33 34 35. His love to holiness in doing so much to recover it and linking it with salvation p. 35 36 37 38. We should be followers of God therein p. 38 39 c. CHAP. IV. Gods Punitive Justice asserted from Scripture and Nature p. 42 43 44. It was necessary that there should be a Satisfaction for sin p. 45. Rectoral Justice required it p. 46 to 48. Vnless Christs sufferings were satisfactory no good account can be given of them p. 49 50. It 's not enough to say That he was an Example of Patience p. 50. That he confirmed the Covenant p. 51. That Gods immense love was manifested therein or that his Resurrection assured ours ibid. 52 53. Gods Justice appears in that He though of infinite Mercy inflicted those sufferings on Christ p. 54 55. In that Christ the Patient was Man the Son of God an holy innocent One p. 55 to 58. In that the sufferings of Christ were proportionable to the sinning-powers in man p. 59. To the Law p. 60 61. To the sin and sufferings of a World p. 61 62 63. The fruits of his sufferings as to Himself and as to us p. 64 65. The dreadfulness of sin in respect of the sufferings of Christ and the miserable end of impenitent sinners p. 65 66 c. CHAP. V. Gods Love and Mercy manifested in that he stood not upon the old terms as he might and in giving his Son for us p. 70 to 75. The Socinian objection That if God loved us he was not angry answered p. 76 77 78. The earliness and freeness of Gods love in giving his Son p. 79 80 81. The greatness of the gift p. 82. The manner how he was given p. 83 84 85. The persons for whom p. 85 86 87. The evils removed and the good procured by it p. 87 to 91. The excellent Evangelical terms built upon it p. 91. These are easie and sure p. 92 93 94. The Love and Mercy of God an excellent Motive to stir up our love towards God and man p. 95 96 97 c. CHAP. VI. The Power of God manifest in Christ p. 99 100. In his incarnation and conception p. 100 101 102. In his Miracles p. 103 104. These were true in the History p. 104 105 106. True in the nature of Miracles p. 107. They were numerous and great 108 109 110. They were suited to the Evangelical Design p. 111 112. Divine Power manifest in converting the World notwithstanding its deep corruption and the opposition of Potentates and Philosophers to the Gospel p. 113 to 124. The instruments mean that the power might be of God p. 124 125. The Gospel proposes super-rational Mysteries super-moral Virtues super-mundane rewards things so much above us that without a Divine power the proposal would have been fruitless p. 126 127. CHAP. VII The Truth of God manifested in Christ p. 133 134. The Promise of the Messiah p. 134. The Messiah is already come ibid. 135. Jesus is the true Messiah p. 136 137 138. All the other promises are built upon him 138 139. The truth of the Moral Law evidenced in him 139. The Mandatory part proved by his active Obedience The Minatory by his Sufferings p. 139 140 141. He is the substance of the Types and Sacrifices p. 142 143 144. Somewhat in him answers to them p. 144 145. And somewhat in him infinitely transcends them p. 146 to 149. The truth of Worship set forth in him p. 150. He unclogged it from Rituals opened the spiritual mode of it communicates Grace for it reveals the great Reward of Eternal Life p. 150 151 152. CHAP. VIII Gods Providence asserted from Scripture Philosophy and Reason 156 157 158. It hath a double act Conservative and Ordinative p. 159 160 161. Both are manifested in Christ p. 162. It was over Christ over his Genealogy Birth Life Death p. 162 163 164. Over the fruit of his Satisfaction in raising up a Church p. 165. It aimed at a Church directed the means and added the blessing p. 166 167. That opinion That Christ might have dyed and yet there might have been no Church is false p. 168 169 170. All other Providences reduced to those over Christ and the Church p. 171 to 176. Epicurus's Objection against Providence answered p. 176 177 178. Providence over free acts of men asserted and yet Liberty not destroyed p. 178 to 186. The objections touching the afflictions of good men and the event of sin solved p. 186 to 192 The Entity in sinful actions distinct from the Anomy the Order from the Ataxy p. 192 193 c. CHAP. IX The Doctrine of Original sin the great moment of it p. 202 to 205. Adam's sin imputed to us p. 206. The proof of it from Scripture p. 207 to 209. Adam's capacity p. 210. Adam's righteousness ibid. Objections answered p. 211 to 215. Our inherent pravity p. 216. The proof of it from Scripture p. 217 218. The experience of our hearts p. 219 to 221. The actual sins in the world p. 222 223. The doctrine of Original sin manifested from Christs extraordinary Conception p. 224 225. His Headship opposed to Adam's p. 226 from the institution of Baptism p. 227. The wickedness of the Jews in crucifying of Christ p. 228 229. The purchase of Regeneration and Salvation made by Christ p. 230 to 234. A short improvement of this Doctrine p. 235 236 c. CHAP. X. Touching Grace p. 239. The fountain of it Gods love ib. 240. The streams supernatural gifts p. 240 241. The center Heaven p. 242. It s freeness in that all perish not in the fall Original sin meriting death and Christ being a free gift p. 242 to 248. It s freeness in chusing a Church to God p. 248. Election not of all p. 249. No Legislative act but a singling out of some to life in an infallible way and meerly of Grace 250 to 259. It 's freeness in the external and internal Call p. 259 to 262. The distinction between the two Calls 263 to 269. The efficacy of Grace as to the Principles of Faith and other graces with the manner of their production p. 269 to 276. As to actual believing and willing with the proofs of it 276 to 285. As to perseverance in faith and holiness p. 285 286. The Habits of Grace desectible in themselves but not in their dependence p. 287 to 295. CHAP. XI Touching Justification as to the Law p. 325 to 327. Christs Righteousness constitutes us righteous p. 328. A double imputation One to the proper Agent another to those in